Eye of the Tiger
by badlucklex
Summary: On the night the turtles find their first canister of mutagen, they find a half mutant that has a past with the Kraang. She was hunting down the Kraang when the turtles got in her way. As she struggles to gain control over her mutation and learns to trust, she helps the turtles, knowing she can't take down the Kraang on her own.
1. Rise of the Turtles: Part 1

**Hi! This is my first tmnt fanfiction, but I hope you like it! I'm keeping it in line with the 2012 tv series, but adding my own OC into the mix. I want to know people are actually reading the story though so review and PM me what you think!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own tmnt, just my OC**

A dark figure crouched on the edge of the roof across the street from its target. The figure wore a black sleeveless hoodie zipped all the way up and tugged down to cover its face. Pale arms, lean with muscle reached down to hold the edge of the roof as the figure leaned forward, trying unsuccessfully to see in the darkness. The figure sighed before pulling its hood back and releasing long black hair from its confines.

The girl had delicate features that coincided with her slight, petite frame. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She thought of her past, the screams, the pain, and felt anger boiled up inside of her.

Her brows creased as she opened her eyes to glare down at the building, her eyes now yellow and pupils slitted like a cat's. A soft grinding noise echoed the vacant street as her nails lengthened and sharpened into claws.

Her pupils dilated, allowing her to see into the dark alley clearly. Her ears perked up, picking up the sound of approaching footsteps. She spun around to see four figures jumping across the roofs of the closely placed buildings. She immediately straightened and easily leapt across the street to another building, a normal feat for her amount of strength, and hid behind a ventilation shaft as the four figures stopped on the roof she was previously occupying.

She showed slight surprise when she peeked out from behind the shaft to get a good look at the newcomers, but she also knew better than to doubt her senses.

On the opposite roof stood four large green creatures that resembled turtles. One wore a purple mask and had a bo staff strapped across its shell. Another sported a red mask and had two sai holstered in its belt. A third wore an orange mask and its belt held a pair of nun chucks. The final turtle-like creature wore a blue mask and had twin katanas strapped on its shell.

She closed her eyes, focusing her hearing as she tried to listen in on them.

"Explain to me one more time what we're doing here," the orange-masked creature whispered to the blue-masked one. The other three groaned.

"Mikey, we've been over this," the blue-masked turtle replied, exasperated. "The building has the same logos as the van that was used to kidnap the family. So, if we wait here long enough, one of the kidnappers will eventually show his face, and when he does, we'll make him tell us where they took them."

"And then we got ourselves a van!" Mikey said excitedly, punching his fist into the air.

The girl face-palmed. How stupid was this turtle?

"Just hit the guy I tell you to," the blue-masked turtle replied after also face palming.

"Will do!"

"Are you sure this is gonna work?" the red-masked turtle asked.

"Trust me, they'll be here any second."

The girl narrowed her eyes. She didn't know who these turtles were, but she had been staking out this place for days, never sleeping and barely eating. She was exhausted and felt like she was on the brink of collapsing. There was no way that these creatures suddenly decide the watch the place and her enemies would finally show themselves.

The blue-masked one stood in the spot the girl previously occupied as the time slowly passed. She observed the purple-masked turtle and Mikey starting playing a paper football game when Mikey flicked the football into the other one's head, annoying his purple-masked companion. As more time passed, Mikey dozed off while sitting up and the purple-masked turtle starting jump roping before tripping and falling on its face. Another half an hour passed and three of the turtles stood on the other end of the roof, the purple-masked turtle and Mikey sitting back-to-back and playing I-spy.

"All right," Mikey said. "I'm thinking of something green; green, green."

"Is it Raphael again?" the purple-masked turtle asked, tired. This would be the tenth time Mikey used Raphael.

"Man! You're good at this!" Mikey exclaimed.

The girl across the street was barely holding back from smashing her head into the shaft in frustration. _These turtle-things are so weird!_

"Give it up all ready," Raphael said to his blue-masked comrade. "The guy is not going to show."

"We have to be patient," was the blue-masked turtle's reply.

_Patience, yeah right. I've been here for over a week and haven't seen a thing._

"No! You have to come up with a better plan, because the four of us standing here with our thumbs up our noses-"

"I don't think they fit," Mikey commented. Raphael and the blue-masked turtle look at him before continuing.

"-is pointless!"

Just then the girl heard tires screeching below and lunged to peer down into the alley in disbelief.

"You sure about that Raph?" the blue-masked turtle asked.

_What the hell! I've been here so long and this is when they decide to show up? This is ridiculous!_

"He just showed up, didn't he? I should've complain two hours ago."

The van parked and the lights turned off as a grimy looking guy in a white tank top hopped out.

"Gentlemen," the blue-masked turtle started, his voice sounding deeper. "I have a bold and daring plan. There's no time for hesitation. My orders must be carried out without question."

By the time the leader finished his theatrical monologue, his companions had already leapt down to the street, leaving his alone.

"Guys? Guys, wait up."

She stopped listening as the turtles distracted the driver long enough for her to jump from the roof and land quietly on the ground next to the back doors of the van. She opened one door as she heard the man fire of his laser pistol. She quickly climbed inside and closed the door behind her. She crouched down between boxes as the van started and took off out of the alley with a lurch.

She barely managed to keep herself from slamming face first into the back of the van as the vehicle swerved left and right. She couldn't stop herself from smacking her head into the side of the van a few times and she fought the growing darkness creeping up on her. She hadn't slept for over a week, and she felt like she was on the verge of passing out every time she knocked her head against the metal siding.

A loud thud came from the roof as the van swerved again and something fell from the boxes and into her lap. It was a container of the glowing ooze she remembered all too well, but before she could think any further on the subject her head was smacked against metal again. She rubbed her head as she heard the pistol being discharged again.

Suddenly, she heard a tire burst and the van spun out of control and slammed into something hard before being thrown on its side. She was thrown haphazardly around, knocking her head hard enough to bring her to the brink of unconsciousness.

The doors of the van opened when the van came to a stop and she tumbled out along with a bunch of the boxes as she became buried under them. She groaned, fighting off the darkness that threatened to overtake her. She vaguely thought that next time she should take some cat naps during stake outs in the future.

She heard footsteps and looked through the cracks in the boxes to see the four turtle-like creatures standing at the back of the van. Raphael moved forward and opened the other van door and the canister of ooze fell out and rolled to a stop as Mikey's feet.

"Mom?" Mikey exclaimed, looking up in surprise.

"Woah," the four said together.

"So that's the -?" Leo started.

"Mutagen that turned us all into what we are now," Donnie finished, holding the canister up for him and his brothers to see.

"Let's drink some!" Mikey said excitedly.

"What?" Raph yelled. "Why would you do that?"

"Because if you mutate a mutant you get a super mutant!" Mikey explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Or a pile of goo on the sidewalk," Donnie interjected, staring blankly at his younger brother.

"Either way, it's an improvement," Raph said with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face.

"Guys, this is huge," Leo said, stepping in. "Whoever kidnapped those people is somehow connected to what happened to us fifteen years ago."

"How is that possible?" Donnie asked.

"For alien robots, anything is possible," Mikey said.

"Stop that. There are no such thing as alien robots!"

"Oh, yeah?" Mikey walked up to the grimy guy as he sat back. "Well, if there's no such thing as alien robots, how do you explain this!" Mikey pulled at the human's face to prove his point unsuccessfully.

"My face!" the man yelled.

"Man, this mask is glued on tight!"

"Mikey!" Leo yelled. "That's not a mask."

"Okay, he's in the clear." Mikey pushed the guy back. "But, those other guys were totally alien robots!"

"Enough!" Raph said, walking up to the human and grabbing his arm. "Time to get some answers. Who are you and what's going on?"

"The name's Snake," the man replied. "And I have nothing to say to you hideous freaks."

Well, that's because you don't know us yet." Raph threw the man towards his brothers. "See, we were just regular guys, that is, until we got his with a little of this." Two of his brothers held the man's arms as Raph opened the canister.

"W-What are you doing?"

"Playing a little game I like to called mutation roulette. Now, you could turn out handsome like me, or you could end up disgusting and deformed, like Mikey here."

"Hey!" Mikey said indignantly.

"So, you feel lucky?" Raph asked as he started to tip the canister.

"Okay, okay!" Snake yelled. "They call themselves the Kraang. They've been grabbing scientists from all over the city."

"Well, that worked pretty good," Leo said.

"Well of course it did," Raph replied. "Would you wanna look like Mikey?"

"I'm right here" Mikey said, pouting a little.

"What do they want with scientists?" Leo asked.

"I don't' know," Snake replied. Raph threatened Snake with the mutagen again. "All I know is that they're taking them out of the city tonight, but I don't know where!"

"This is awesome!" Donnie shouted. "That girl's dad's a scientist, I'm a scientist. Oh, she is so gonna like me!"

"I don't think you're here type," Snake dead-panned.

"Where are they know?" Leo asked, ignoring Donnie and Snake's exchange.

Snake was about to answer when they heard the boxes moving and being pushed aside. The five of them stared as a girl stood up and rubbed her head, then turned towards them.

"Aw, shell," Raph said. He thought they were spotted by a human, but that was until he got a closer look as she strode towards them.

"What they hell?" Snake exclaimed. "You weren't in there before!"

"No, I wasn't," the girl replied with an animalistic snarl that showed her sharp canines. Her yellow cat-like eyes narrowed at Snake, and completely ignored the turtles. "I was hitching a ride to find out where your base of operations was until these stupid turtle mutants interfered!" She glanced at each turtle individually - Leo looking surprised, Raph glaring back, Donnie looking sheepish, and Mikey looking scared.

"What the shell are you talking about?" Raph asked angrily.

The girl only his at him as she crouched, ready to pounce with her hands up in front of her showing them her sharp claws.

She lunged forward, but Raph moved out of her way, looking smug before he realized she planned for him to do that so she could reach her real target, Snake.

The force of her jump pushed Snake out of the grips of Donnie and Mikey and the girl and man rolled farther away before they stopped with her straddling him. Her arm was raised with her claws extended, ready to strike.

"Where are they holding the people?" she asked, growling loud enough to send a chill down even Raph's shell.

"Like I would tell a little girl like you," Snake replied. The girl's hand pounded the group next to his head, cracking the pavement as she brought her hand up for another strike as her knuckled bled. "Okay, I'll tell you!"

"I don't know about you, but I kinda like her," Raph said with a smirk. His brothers looked at him with disbelief. "What? That was cool!"

"She must be another mutant," Donnie reasoned. "Did you see her teeth?"

"She had claws too!" Mikey exclaimed.

"We'll worry about that later," Leo said. "For now let's just-" He turned to find the girl gone and Snake scrambling to get away. "What? Where'd she go?"

"Got him!" Raph shouted to his brothers as he tackled the man to the ground.

She leapt from roof to roof, taking a page from the turtles' book as she made her way to the Kraang base. Those turtles got in her way, and her rage fueled her and kept her awake and she landed on a building close to the base. She scoped the place out with her heightened sight and found at least twenty of the Kraang surrounding the place and a helicopter pad on the roof.

She growled low in her throat in annoyance. If only those turtles didn't get in her way, she would have made it inside the base no problem. Now, she was forced to fight her way in. Normally, she would scout the place out, but that could take nights and that Snake guy said they were moving the captives tonight. This was her only lead on the Kraang and she wouldn't let them get away - never again.

She spun as she felt a presence behind her, teeth bared and claws at the ready, only to find the turtles. Mikey squealed and hid behind Donnie, peeking out to watch her straighten up with narrowed eyes.

"What?" she asked as they stared at her. "Going to get in my way again, turtles?"

"Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot-" Leo started, but she cut him off.

"If it wasn't for you stupid turtles then I would have made into their base easily, but now I have to fight my way in with twenty Kraang guarding the place. I won't be able to babysit you guys too."

She spun and crouched on the ledge as she eyed the base again.

She heard the one named Leo walked up to stand on the ledge about ten feet from her position. He took out a telescope, before she spoke again.

"I already told you. There are about twenty Kraang armed with weapons and there's a helicopter pad on the roof."

Leo glanced at her, but looked through the eyeglass anyway.

"If you don't mind my asking, how do you know?" Donnie asked politely. She turned to look back at him.

"I can see," she replied simply before returning to her observations.

"But that's too far away," Donnie replied, confused.

"I thought you would have noticed by now," she said as she stood and turned to bodily face him.

Leo glanced at her warily and she stepped down from the ledge and slowing walked up to Donnie. Her baggy pants rustled as she grew closer and Raph took out his sai, anticipating an attack. Mikey cowered further behind Donnie, who gulped nervously and scratched his neck as she stopped right in front of him. He stood a head taller than her, so she grabbed his plastron and pulled him pulled to look her in the eye and he gasped. Her eyes were a brilliant yellow color, and her eyes had a slitted pupil instead of the usual round one.

Raph lunged to protect his brother when she bodily shoved Donnie in the way and the two turtles fell to the ground.

"You really didn't think you were the only mutants around did you?" she asked plainly as she returned to her perched on the ledge. Leo raised an eyebrow at her as he ran to help his younger brothers up.

"Well, Master Splinter is-"Mikey started before Raph hit him over the head, stopping him from speaking further. The turtles didn't know this mutant girl, and for all they knew she could be the enemy. Raph didn't need his baby brother talking about their sensei to a stranger, even if she was a mutant too.

"So, twenty Kraang," Leo commented, getting his brothers back on topic.

"And that's just the ones we can see," Donnie said.

"All right," Raph said, spinning his sai expertly. "An all-you-can-beat buffet."

"We can't just rush in there," Leo said, holding up his hand to stop his brother. "We need a plan."

"Why?" Raph asked, dumfounded.

"Think, you shell brain," Donnie said. "There are innocent lives at stake. If we screw this up they're all goners."

"Then we won't screw it up," Raph replied plainly.

"Boy I could sure go for some of that pizza now, huh?" Mikey said. The girl spun around. Mikey was previously guarding the man named Snake, and now he was nowhere to be seen. "What? I can't be the only one that's hungry."

As if on queue a small growl sounded and they looked over at the girl, who held her hand over her stomach sheepishly. They stared and she blushed in embarrassment, more pronounced on her pale skin.

"Before you guys got there, I was staking out the place for over a week," she mumbled. "I didn't eat or sleep in that time…"

"What?" Mikey shouted hyperly. "What's wrong with you? Are you insane?"

"Yeah, that's not healthy," Donnie said.

"Where's Snake?" Leo asked, once again bringing the group back on topic.

Before they could react, the girl snarled and leapt into action, running after Snake as he jumped off the roof, the turtles following close behind. She looked over the edge to see Snake running down the fire escape of the five story building. She followed after him, and jumped over the railing as she reached the third story, landing lightly on her feet. Unfortunately, when she looked up, Snake jumped down from the end of the fire escape and landed bodily on her.

She was knocked to the ground, stars dancing across her vision as the night seemed to grow darker. She realized her pupils changed back to their round shape and tried to regain her mutant vision, but to no avail. She noticed her claws and canines had also returned to normal as she jumped to her feet and chased after Snake.

The four turtles landed on the ground behind her as she turned the corner, catching up to Snake despite her human speed. They turned down an alley and Snake grabbed the lid of a garbage can and threw it at the girl. She didn't have enough time to react as it hit her square in the forehead and she fell hard on the ground.

Leo and Raph reached the wall and looked down the alley to find the girl unconscious, a thin trail of blood trailing down from a cut on her forehead with a garbage can lid lying beside her. Leo and Raph narrowed their eyes as they approached her cautiously, until they found she really was knocked out cold.

The duo heard movement from further in the alley, but Leo had a plan. Leo nodded towards the alley as he looked meaningfully at Raph.

"Oh great," Leo said in a terribly fake voice. "We let him get away."

"Woah, woah," Raph replied in a must more realistic voice. "You're the leader. That's means _you_ let him get away."

"You're not helping."

"I'm not trying to help."

"Okay, look, you want me to lead? Fine. We go back to the lair, gear up, and at midnight, we drive Snake's van right up to the gate. They'll think we're him and we'll cruise right in."

"And then we bust some heads?" Raph asked hopefully.

"And then we bust some head," Leo replied.

"I love a happy ending," Raph said as he started to walk away when he tripped right over the girl, who groaned, but stayed unconscious. "Wait, what do we do with her?"

"I guess we should bring her back," Leo said slowly. In truth, he had actually forgotten about her. He knew Master Splinter told them to stay away from humans, and bathrooms, but she wasn't necessarily human, and she could help them against the Kraang. "Raph, you carry her."

"Wait, why do I have to carry her?" Raph asked angrily.

"You want me to lead?" Leo said smugly, crossing his arms over his chest. "Then you have to follow my orders. Plus, since you were the once that just kicked her, I think you should be the one to carry her." Raph didn't move, still fuming at his brother. "She isn't too heavy for you, is she, Raph? Because I could go get Mikey-"

Raph grumbled, but picked the petite girl up, supporting her shoulders and from under her knees. The brothers headed off back to the lair with a new guest to explain to Master Splinter.

**Hope you enjoyed the story! So review so I know people are actually reading it and liking it!**


	2. Rise of the Turtles: Part 2

**Hello again! I decided to write the next chapter right away. Just so you know, I have to watch each episode again bit by bit to get the story line and quotes right, so that's why it takes some time. Plus, classes are starting soon and my course load is pretty stuff, so I want to get as much out as possible before then. I'm also on an APA pool league that takes up a good amount of time. Enough of this, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own tmnt, just my OC.**

The girl groaned, her head pounding. It felt like her skull was going to explode from the pressure. She faintly heard an electric buzzing sound, thinking it might be some kind of blow torch. She slowly reached her hand up to her head, feeling a small bandage over the spot where the garbage can lid struck her. She gritted her teeth and ripped the bandage off.

She sat up cautiously as she observed her surroundings. She seemed to be on some kind of weird couch in a sunken area in the center of the room. An older, but large, box television was in the pit and a large drain was set in the middle. Above her head was a strange kind of spiral object, like a staircase, but made of wooden planks that didn't even reach the ground.

One side of the room had stairs that lead to old subway turnstiles with an old arcade machine pushed against a column that split the six turnstiles. Another side also had a few steps that led to two large garage bay doors that blue light sparked through every time the electric buzzing noise sounded. The third side of the room had stairs that led to a few doors that might have been to bedrooms.

The final side of the room had a small body of water, like a river, with a large grate laid in a wall of an elevated platform. The elevated platform had two round openings, but they were covered by Japanese style curtains. The river turned the corner and ran under a staircase that led to the room on the platform, and the hallway led farther back to where she couldn't see.

She quietly got off the couch and settled into a crouch. Her pounding head prevented her from concentrating enough to bring out her better half, so she would have to be extra careful not to be seen. She made an educated guess that the turnstiles led to the exit, and slowly moved towards them. From the hallway next to the platform, she heard voices, but couldn't hear specifics with her dull hearing. She almost made it to the turnstiles before she heard yelling that was growing closer.

"I'm gonna shellac you!" a rough voice yelled, followed by a scream.

Running footsteps grew closer and she looked down the hallway to see two of the four turtles running her way. The turtle called Raphael was chasing Mikey with a wooden spoon held ready to strike the younger brother. The three of them froze when they locked eyes. The girl looked from Raphael to Mikey before glancing towards the exit.

She lunged to the exit and catapulted over the turnstiles, planting her hand on one of them to give her the lift she needed. She ran a few feet before the turtles moved.

"She's getting away!" Raph shouted, sprinting after her and leaping easily over the turnstiles with Mikey following close behind.

She jumped down to the train tracks and ran down them in one direction. She had no idea where she was going, but she didn't want to stay here. She pumped her arms and pushed her legs to go faster, but her human speed could only get her so far before a chain wrapped around her body and jerked her painfully backwards.

She landed with a thud on her back, the metal links digging painfully into her skin as she looked up, annoyed to see the two turtles standing over her. Mikey held the other end of the chain, looking at her with something between excitement and worry, like he cared if she got hurt or not. _You don't know me, why would you care? Stupid turtle._

"Not so fast," Raph said with a smirk.

"You guys just don't know when to give up, do you?" the girl asked.

"And apparently, neither do you."

Raph roughly picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, easily keeping his hold on her as she squirmed and kicked at him unsuccessfully. He dumped her onto the couch once more as the two remaining turtles entered the room, and a large rat that followed behind Leo.

"I see our guest is awake," the rat said calmly. The girl tried to glare at him, but she saw a kindness in her eyes that prevented her from doing it for long and she looked away. "What is your name, child?"

She refused to answer, looking no one in the eyes. She jumped when Mikey popped up in front of her face with a broad grin on his face.

"Hi!" he said excitedly. "My name's Mikey!"

"I know," she said blandly.

"Woah! You must be psychic!" Mikey stared at her in awe before Raph hit him upside the head.

A silence fell on the group.

"You are safe here," the rat insisted, kneeling in front of the girl and placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Now, what is your name?"

Looking into his eyes, she knew he was speaking the truth, and even though she didn't trust him, telling them her name wouldn't do any harm. She wouldn't be around long anyway. She figured if she could gain their trust enough to let their guards down, then she could get away and continue on with her plan of taking out the Kraang one by one.

"Lana," she mumbled, looking away.

"Lana, cool!" Mikey almost shouted. "That's a pretty name."

"Um, thanks?" Lana replied uncertainly.

"So, as you already know, that's Mikey," the blue-masked one said, gesturing towards the youngest brother. "I'm Leonardo." Leonardo pointed to himself. "That's Donatello," he continued, pointing towards the purple-masked turtle that waved with a geeky smile. "And the hot-head is-"

"Raph," Lana finished. She remembered his name from listening to them before.

Leo blinked in surprise before finishing the introductions.

"And this is Master Splinter," Leo concluded, waving a hand towards his sensei and father.

"It is nice to meet you, Lana," Master Splinter replied. At first, he had been skeptical towards the girl. He heard all of what transpired between his sons and the girl. His ears perked when they said she was a mutant, but the girl before them was an ordinary human. He concluded that the stress from their traumatic first experience topside had gotten the better of them.

"So," Lana started. "Can I go now? I kind of have somewhere I need to be."

"Woah, woah, woah," Leo started, stepping forward. "Wait, first, you're going to tell us everything you know about the Kraang, and what you are exactly."

"Excuse me?" Lana asked incredulously with a glare. "I don't need to tell you anything!"

"Well, then I guess you aren't going anywhere."

Lana growled in frustration, her anger growing.

"Uh oh," Mikey said, stepping back a little.

"If you don't remember, the Kraang are moving those people tonight, and they're going to get away! So, if you don't mind, release me before you regret it."

She snarled, feeling her canines lengthen as the brothers stared at her.

"She has a point Leo," Donnie interjected. His voice distracted her and her anger dissipated, canines returning to normal. "It's almost midnight. We gotta go."

Leo looked from Donnie to Lana, a frown forming on his lips.

"Look, I know the Kraang better than you guys. If you let me go, I'll help you get those people out of there. That's what we both plan to do anyway, so we might as well work together."

Lana sighed in defeat. She just wanted to get out of here and take down some Kraang before slipping away from these turtles, but they didn't need to know that. Let them think she was on their side, but she would never trust them.

"Then you'll answer our questions?" Leo asked skeptically.

"Yes, Yes," Lana answered impatiently. "Fine, no get these things off of me already!"

Leo nodded to Mikey who released her. She stood up, rubbing her arms where the chains dug in, knowing they would bruise soon. Her human side was so weak.

Donnie's eyes widened before stepping forward quickly, making Lana back away just as quickly as she narrowed her eyes. Donnie froze when he noticed this.

"Your forehead is bleeding again," Donnie explained. He held up his hands in a not threatening way and he inched closer. "Let me fix it up before we head out."

"No need," Lana replied curtly as she stepped back away from the turtles again to keep a comfortable distance.

"But, you're hurt!" Mikey said, worry and concern etched on his face.

Lana closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She brought her anger and rage to the surface and felt power flow through her body. Her claws and canines lengthened to a point and when she opened her eyes, the world became clear as her slitted pupils dilated.

The four turtles stared at her forehead where the wound began to heal until nothing was left.

Master Splinter watched calmly, though honestly, he was quite surprised. So, she was indeed a mutant, but there was something different about her. He turned back to his dojo to meditate, planning to ask her at a later time.

"Woah, that's cool!" Mikey shouted excitedly, running up to get a closer look before Lana growled at him.

"How is that possible?" Donnie asked to no one in particular.

"What are you waiting for?" Lana asked blankly before turned towards the turnstiles.

The five of them waited on a nearby building as Donnie controlled Snakes van remotely. Lana was perched on the ledge in her usual position as Leo stood a few feet away from her. Mikey was watching Donnie work with wide eyes and Raph paced the roof impatiently.

Lana could understand the itch to finally get some action, but stayed still. She had to remain in control. She wouldn't let the turtles glimpse the real her. There was no point, because she wasn't planning on sticking around. They can think whatever they want, but after this, she'd leave them behind. She always worked better on her own, and being alone means no one can betray you.

From the corner of her eye she could see Leo opening and closing his mouth. He obviously wanted to say something, but just could figure out what is was or how to say it precisely.

"What?" Lana asked in a bored tone. "Just spit it out already."

Leo jumped a little, scratching the back of his head and looking a bit sheepish.

"Well, I was wondering," Leo started slowly, picking his words carefully. "Why are you after the Kraang?"

Raph stopped his pacing and walked up next to Leo, also wanting to hear the answer. Lana stayed silent. There was no way she was going to give him personal information like that. Raph got annoyed with the silence and spoke up.

"Hey, he asked you a question!" Raph said angrily. "This is how you repay us-"

"And what exactly have you done that I need to repay?" Lana snarled, standing abruptly. "All you turtles have ever done was get in my way and ruin my plans!" Lana stalked up to Raph, her chest bumping his. She glared slightly up with narrowed eyes and he stared back down angrily.

"Hey, if we're going to work together, we have to cool it," Leo said, pushing them away from each other and stepping between them to prevent a fight. "Lana, I was just wondering. I didn't mean to offend you or anything. I just if we were teaming up then we should know why you are after the Kraang."

"Who said anything about teaming up? Just because we are working on this together doesn't mean we are a team. I work alone, always have, and always will."

"We can help you-"

"I don't need help, and I don't need another knife in my back, thank you very much."

"You have a knife in your back?" Mikey shouted worriedly. Lana jumped as Mikey popped up behind her and looked closely at her back. "I don't see one. It must be tiny!"

Lana looked at him like an idiot while the two eldest brothers stared blankly at him. Lana looked back at Leo.

"Is he always like this?" she asked incredulously. No one could be this stupid.

"Basically," Leo said with a resigned sigh as Raph hit Mikey upside the head.

"Ow!" Mikey shouted, rubbing his head with a pout.

Lana pinched the bridge of her nose in irritation. Mikey was like a child, but actually kind of funny, not that Lana would let them know that. She envied his innocence in a way. Maybe if things were different, she would be like him – a happy-go-lucky teenager. He kind of reminded her of –

"Time to go guys," Donnie said, standing up.

The group turned to see Snake's van crash into the base entrance and explode. They ran towards the base, sticking to the shadows. As the Kraang were distracted, the turtles used the spiked metal bands to climb the brick wall while Lana used her claws.

"Wow," Mikey said. "Lucky thing that van showed up to distract them."

Donnie face-palmed, only to hurt himself using his own creation.

"That was the plan, Mikey," Leo explained slowly. "We knew Snake was hiding in the alley, so Raph and I made him think we would be in the van."

"But, we weren't in the van," Mikey replied, confused.

"Just keep climbing," Leo said, giving up on his mentally slow younger brother.

"Can do," Mikey said with a smile.

_What is wrong with these turtles? Mikey's a child, Donnie's a genius, Raph has anger problem, and Leo tries to keep it all together. It's like one big dysfunctional family. Wait, they are a family… Ugh, Mikey's rubbing off on me._

Lana reached the top first and found the entrance to a ventilation shaft. She used her claws to unscrew the bolts and quietly take the cover off while the brothers finished their ascension.

She motioned for the turtles to follow her as she led the way into the shaft. She put her finger to her lips to reinforce the fact that they have to stay quiet before she crawled forward. The Kraang were typically a predictable race, seeing as the layout of their buildings are almost identical to each other. She easily led them to the hallway near the prison cells.

The area around this part of the shaft opened up enough for the turtles to stand up, but Lana stayed down, looking through the slits to watch a patrol of Kraang pass by before she kicked the shaft open.

The metal clanged loudly on the floor as two disguised Kraang walked over to investigate. When the Kraang looked up, Leo and Raph jumped down to take them out. When the two Kraang fell on the floor, the other three jumped down as Leo and Raph took out their weapons.

"Follow me," Lana whispered as she walked down the hallway in a crouch.

"Wow," Donnie said as he looked around the base in awe. "I've never seen anything like this! They're using a metal alloy that I don't even recognize."

"You wouldn't," Lana said. "This isn't your normal Earthly metals."

"What do you mean?"

"Gosh, a metal alloy even you don't know about," Raph said dramatically. "It boggles the mind."

"Dude, you wanna talk metallurgy with _me_? Bring it."

"I don't. And I-"

"Guys!" Leo interrupted. "What part of being in an enemy lair do you not understand?"

Lana sighed in frustration as they finally were able to continue down the hall. Soon, they came to a three-way intersection with six Kraang and the turtles huddled against the wall behind Lana.

"Woah," Donnie said. "Alien robots!"

"Alien robots, huh?" Mikey said. "Hmm, where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, I've been saying that for hours!" Mikey screamed the last part, gaining the attention of the Kraang in front of them.

"Mikey, you idiot!" Lana shouted as she lunged forward, weaving through the pink laser shots.

The four turtles leapt away and into action as Raph followed Lana towards the robots with his sai drawn. Lana yowled like an angry feline as she jumped a Kraang and straddled it, slashing at its face until the head popped off and flew into the wall.

Each turtle managed to take down a Kraang with their respective weapons. As Raph was finishing his off, another stepped up and aimed its rifle at him. Before Raph could attack it, Lana soared through the air and kicked it in the head, the force knocking the head off its body as it crumbled to the ground. Lana landed lightly on her feet as she watch Leo show an amazing amount of skill as he wielded his katanas and sliced the remained Kraang in half.

The Kraang fell to the ground and the turtles went to Leo. Lana stood on the opposite side of the robot as the real Kraang swung its tentacles as it prepared to detach from the body.

It turned and squealed at them, making Donnie, Raph, and Leo scream. Mikey jumped in front and wacked it over the head with his nun chuck as Lana chuckled at their reactions.

The four turtles suddenly looked at Lana, hearing the laugh, and stared at her blankly. Her face reddened slightly before turning around. She held her arm in front of her nervously as she coughed into her hand.

"See? See!" Mikey said loudly, grabbing the Kraang by its tentacles and holding it up for his brothers to see. Lana sighed in relief as the attention was diverted off of her. "It's a brain thing! I told you! I told you! But, did any of you believe me? No! Because you all think I'm just some kind of bone-head!"

Lana Spun around when she heard the Kraang squeal and bite Mikey's arm.

"Ow!" Mikey shouted as he frantically waved his arm around, trying to get the Kraang off of him.

Lana ran up to him and grabbed the Kraang, trying to pull it off. She put her steel-toed combat boots on Mikey's plastron and gave one more hard pull. Lana fell on her backside when the Kraang finally released Mikey and flew right into a button on the wall, setting off the base alarm.

The three turtles stared incredulously at the two of them as the Kraang squealed one last time and scurried away as Mikey approached it.

"Mikey!" the three brother's yelled.

"It wasn't just my fault! Lana's the one that pulled it off of me and threw it into the button!" Mikey shouted back as he pointed an accusatory finger at Lana, who just stood back up. She jumped at the sound of her name and looked at the turtles with wide eyes before they turned back to Mikey. "All right, but I was still right about the brain thing! You gotta give me that!"

Lana scratched the back of her head guiltily, knowing full well it was partially her fault. In the short time she knew the turtles, she knew what Mikey said was true and felt bad that he got all the blame for it. She was sure he was a bright kid… _deep _down at least.

"Let's move," Leo said as they heard Kraang moving in their direction.

"Move? Where?" Raph asked, dumbfounded.

"I think those are power conduits," Donnie said, pointing up to the ceiling.

"Oh, that's really interesting, Donnie. Thanks for sharing." Raph said sarcastically.

"Meat-head, the power conduits are all converging that way," Donnie said with a glare as he pointed down the hall. "Which means that whatever is going on in that direction is important!"

"Donnie's right," Lana said, finally finding her voice after her shameful mistake. "The wires all converge to a central room that houses the main computer frame. If we can get to the computer, we can theoretically unlock _all _the cells to release the prisoners."

The four turtles stared at her, making her face turn a light shade of pink. She never liked attention. It made her nervous.

"How do you know that?" Raph asked suspiciously. He crossed his arms.

Before she could answer, the Kraang from behind started firing their weapons. Lana was secretly happy for another diversion.

"I'd be happy to tell you, but it's time to move! Follow me, I know the way!"

Lana ran in front of them as Donnie and Leo followed close behind.

"Haha, you got spanked," Mikey said as he passed Raph. "Twice!" Raph grabbed Mikey's finger and twisted it painfully. "Ow, ow! Mercy!" Mikey sucked on his finger while Raph ran in the direction the rest of the group went. "Not cool!" Mikey said as he followed behind.

As Lana neared the central room, she heard Donnie stop running and turned to see he stopped in front of one of the cells.

"We found them," Donnie said.

"Good job, but we need to make it to the computer frame so we can release all of the prisoners!" Lana said impatiently.

"I don't think there are other prisoners," Mikey said as he looked into a few cell windows.

"Fine," Lana sighed in defeat. "Move, Donnie." Lana pushed Donnie out of the way as she inspected the cell lock.

"Hey!" Donnie said indignantly. He crossed his arms as he watched the petite mutant start poking at the lock pad. The pad sparked violently and burned Lana's fingers, which slowly healed. "Stop that! You're gonna break it and they'll never get out!" Donnie pushed Lana back.

"I know more about Kraang tech than you, turtle!" Lana growling angrily, violently pointing at him, but Donnie ignored her. Her ears perked as she heard metallic footsteps. "Fine! You can take forever to unlock it while _I_ take care of the Kraang."

As if on queue, Kraang ran down the hall firing their weapons.

"You are totally psychic!" Mikey shouted with a smile as the four lunged forward to attack.

Leo slashed at the Kraang, knocking them down as his brother's followed. Lana hung back a bit, in case _Donnie_ needed help with the pad.

"Don't worry!" Donnie reassured. "I'll have you out in a second."

Lana rolled her eyes.

"Okay," a young female voice said from within the cell. "Giant, lizard thing."

"Turtle, actually. I-I'm Donatello."

Lana face-palmed. _Is this really the time for introductions?_

"April," the girl said.

"Wow, that's a pretty-"

Donnie was cut off as Leo fell back and squished his brother's face into the window.

"The lock, Donnie!" Leo ordered, clearly irritated.

"Oh, right, the lock, got it, sorry," Donnie stuttered as he got to work

Lana snickered before joining the fight.

She lunged forward, darting to the side as a Kraang shot at her. She used her enhanced strength and jumped high above the Kraang's head and landed on its shoulders. She ripped the robot's head off its body and tossed it over her shoulder and she jumped off the robot, pushing it into the ground.

Mikey jumped at a group of Kraang, swinging his nun chucks wildly with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. The Kraang shot at the young turtle, but missed as he swung his weapons down, knocking over the five Kraang as he landed.

Donnie worked with the wires, trying to concentrate when April spoke from inside the cell.

"Not to rush you," she said, "but hurry up!"

"Hey, you think it's easy to pick a lock with these hands?" Donnie asked, waving his three fingers hands at her.

"Sorry."

"Not to but rude or anything, but less talking, more working!" Lana growled as Donnie.

Raph kicked a Kraang that snuck up behind Lana and it fell hard on the ground. Lana turned to see a smirking Raph. She nodded at him in thanks and smirked as well before running towards another Kraang that was shooting at Raph. She lunged forward, landing on her two hands and spun her feet around, kicking the gun out of its hands before kicking the Kraang into the wall. She pushed off her hands and flipped back onto her feet and ran to Mikey's side.

Raph stared after her in shocked before grinning and checked on Donnie's progress. Raph scowled before stalking towards the lock pad.

"Oh for the love of," Raph started. "Get out of my way!" Raph shoved his brother aside and took his sai out before repeatedly jamming it into the pad.

Lana ran to the door as she heard another door open to see the back of the cell had opened up. Three Kraang entered the cell as she back up and started kicking the thick metal door unsuccessfully before deciding to ram it.

A harsh crack sounded and Raph stopped stabbing the pad as he and Donnie looked toward Lana. She had fallen to one knee with a short cry of pain, before she snarled and pushed her shoulder back into place as the bone started healing. The door finally opened and she lunged forward after them.

The four turtles looked at each other before following as Kraang shot after them. The five of them burst through double doors.

"Get the door!" Leo shouted.

Lana and Raph jumped to shut the door as a Kraang tried to force its way through. Lana shoved her body against one of the doors, growling slightly in pain as her partially healed bone was put under strain again.

Suddenly, Raph grabbed the Kraang's arm, pulled it out, and broke the arm off of it. Lana kicked the robot back before Raph slammed the door shut and used the arm to lock the doors. The Kraang threw its body into the door to no avail as Lana and Raph turned to the others.

"That'll hold him," Raph said. His brothers stared at him with wide eyes as they blinked. "What?"

"You," Leo started, "are seriously twisted."

"Thanks," Raph replied, genuinely complimented.

"Help!" April shouted, bringing them all back to the task at hand.

The group turned to see a couple Kraang leading the father and daughter across a walkway towards the helicopter.

"Let's get them!" Leo shouted as Lana and the turtles burst into action.

Lana ran behind the turtles, keeping her eye on the prisoners when she ran into Raph's back when they suddenly slid to a stop.

"Hey! What the-" Lana started but froze as she stared up at the plant-like mutant with the rest of them.

A green plant-like creature stood before them. Tentacle like appendages that had thorns on the ends came forward from the back of the creature as large venus fly trap like bulbs opened to reveal more tentacles. The bulbs were situated at the end of what looked like arms. Caged on the outside of what the chest would be was a small beating egg-shaped organ that had to be the heart.

"Uh oh," Mikey said, looking up at the giant mutant before them.

Large yellow eyes opened and glared down at the group as a sharp-toothed mouth opened and snarled at them.

"You did this to me," the creature said menacingly. "Now, you're going to pay!"

"It's Snake," Leo said as he and his brothers slowly back up. "He mutated into a giant weed."

Snake snarled at them, but Lana stood her ground as she held her almost healed shoulder together.

"That's weird," Mikey said. "You'd think he'd mutate into a snake."

"Yeah you would," Raph replied. "If you were in idiot!"

"But, his _name_ is Snake."

"So?"

"You don't understand science."

"Wow," Lana said, noticing Snake was about to attack the bickering turtles behind her. "That's one ugly mutant."

Snake snarled angrily, the single stem separated into two legs. He tried to step on her, but she jumped backwards and slid to a stop in a couch in front of the turtles.

"Stupid girl!" Snake snarled. "I will crush you and the turtles!"

"Uh," Donnie said. "Would it help if we said it was an accident?" Snake prepared to attack, still snarling. "So, I'll put you down as a 'no'?"

Snake swung his giant arm at them as Leo and Donnie jumped over it. Lana noticed Raph and Mikey couldn't react in time lunged in front of the two and slashed with her claws. Snake roared as his arm was sliced in half and his amputated appendage fell to the ground, spewing a purple substance that covered Lana.

"Don't let it touch me! Don't let it touch me! Don't let it touch me!" Mikey screamed as he jumped away from the squirting purple substance. Lana pushed the purple off of her when she got an idea. She scooped some into her hand and tossed it at Mikey. "Ah! It touched me!"

Mikey screamed and pointed at his leg where it landed. Lana laughed as she dodged a blow from Snake, earning confused looks from the turtles, but their attention was soon pulled back to the fight.

She knew that was the completely wrong moment to do something like that, but something in her took over and acted out – acting like she used to.

She was brought out of her thoughts when Snake's hand grew back.

"It grew back?" Donnie said in disbelief. "No fair!"

The five of them looked as they heard the helicopter start up. April looked back in fear as the Kraang brought her closer to the machine.

"Donnie! Go!" Leo shouted. He sheathed katanas as Donnie did the same with his staff before running towards his eldest brother who catapulted him upwards towards the helicopter.

Snake swung at the turtles and Lana in vain as they kept dodging until Snake quickly backhanded Mikey across the ground. Snake swung at him again, but Lana stood in front of him protectively and slashed her claws at every vine that came at her.

"Watch out!" Mikey shouted, but it was too late.

A vine Lana hadn't noticed swiped her to the side and she flew back into a wall. She fell limply to the ground, trying to fight off the darkness that threatened to overtake her.

"Lana!" Mikey shouted as he stood.

He cut through the vines with a curved blade that came out of his nun chuck before he too was swiped aside. Leo took his placed, swinging his katana until he was knocked to the ground. Snake was too preoccupied to notice Raph charge him from behind and use the clawed bands Donnie made for climbing as a weapon to cut Snake's legs. Unfortunately, it just covered Raph's hands in the purple blood.

Snake snarled and lashed out with his vine-like arm when Raph suddenly spun around and grabbed Snake's arm. Raph pulled the mutant down and towards him before lifting his leg high and swinging it down hard on Snake head. Raph leapt over Snake, using his hands to propel himself into a flip to clear the large creature.

Lana stood and rubber her head. Her vision darkened before sharpening again, knowing her eyes changed back to normal before she forced them to mutate once more. She looked to see Snake open his hand and a vine shot towards the retreating Raph.

"Raph, look out!" Lana shout as she ran forwards. She ran on all fours, like a real cat, which propelled her faster to jump in front of Raph in time. Snake's tentacle wrapped tightly around Lana instead of Raph.

Raph turned around just in time to see Lana's anguished expression as Snake's tentacle tightened painfully around her before Snake picked her up and threw her towards his brothers. Mikey and Leo caught her easily before setting her on her feet. She slumped forward a little, holding a bruising armed before it slowly began healing as well.

"Snakeweed's really powerful!" Mikey shouted over the mutant cries as Raph made it back to his brothers.

"Snakeweed?" Lana and Raph asked as the same time. The two looked at each other before turning back to Mikey.

"Yeah, because his name is Snake and now he's a weed, so-"

"We get it," Raph said, exasperated.

"We just have to hold it off until Donnie gets back," Leo said, stepping forward with his katanas at the ready. Lana straightened as she heard the mechanical march of Kraang from behind them. "While not getting shot by alien robots."

"With brains!" Mikey added.

"Let it go, man," Raph said tiredly.

"You guys take care of Snake weed," Lana said as she faced the Kraang. Snakeweed and the Kraang advanced on them from both sides. "I'll take care of these tin cans."

"No," Leo said. Lana turned and glared angrily at him. She didn't like being told what to do. "You take care of Snakeweed with Raph. Mikey and I will take the Kraang."

Leo and Mikey jumped into action before Lana could argue further. She growled and spun towards Snakeweed. She was furious at being ordered around, so she decided taking her anger out of Snakeweed might help.

Raph dodged a vine from Snakeweed and sliced at him with his clawed bands, but it regenerated just as quickly. Snakeweed shot a vine straight at Lana, who jumped straight up and landed lightly on the vegetative mutant. She used her cat-like sense of balance as she sprinted up the vine towards Snakeweed's head. The creature snarled as Lana slammed her foot in its face.

As she fell to the ground, Snakeweed grabbed her again with his vine wrapped around her tightly. She screamed in pain as she felt her bones grind under the pressure. Her arms were pinned to her sides and her legs stuck together as the vine tightened further.

She closed her eyes and focused on keeping her body mutated. If she were to turn back to a normal human, she would be crushed in seconds.

Snakeweed roared as the Kraang shot his legs when the turtles jumped out of the way. Snakeweed stepped forward and swept both the Kraang and the turtles to the ground.

"What's the plan again, chief?" Raph asked.

"I'm working on it," Leo replied.

Snakeweed wrapped another vine around Leo's ankle and picked him up. Leo hung there for a second before getting an idea.

"The power conduit!" Leo shouted to his brother's as Snakeweed swung him around.

"Are we really going to start talking about that again?" Raph asked angrily.

"Perfect!" Leo said to himself before turning to his brothers. "Raph! Mikey!" Leo put one of his katanas in his mouth before signally to his brothers.

They nodded and both jumped to one of Snakeweed's legs, yelling to get his attention. Leo used this chance to slice the vine holding him up and land safely on the ground. Mikey and Raph spun and flipped out of reach each time Snakeweed struck at them. The faced the Kraang, making faces at them before running away screaming when they began shooting.

Snakeweed was hit instead, the vine around Lana tightening in pain before he stumbled back into the conduit source and its grip loosened. Leo leapt onto the source behind Snakeweed and armed himself with shuriken. He threw the shuriken at Snakeweed, one of them nicking the vine that held Lana.

Snakeweed swung at Leo with everything he had and the vine holding Lana snapped as she flew toward the air. Her eyes shot open, pupils round instead of slitted, and she failed to hold back a scream before she made contact with the wall. She fell to the ground, not moving.

"Lana!" Raph shouted as he ran towards her with Mikey following close behind.

Leo landed on Snakeweed's back, antagonizing the Kraang into firing towards him just as he jumped off Snakeweed. The lasers damaged the power conduit source enough to electrocute Snakeweed, the building charge causing the conduit source to explode.

Raph and Mikey ripped the remaining vines off of Lana in time for Raph to scoop her up in his arms and escape the base with his brothers and April.

The turtles decided to bring April home first, seeing as it was on the way to the lair. The girl sat next to her window, arms wrapped around her knees as she stared into the sky.

"Are you going to be okay?" Donnie asked gently as he walked up to her.

"I guess," the red-head replied. "My aunt said I could stay here as long as I want, but I'll be a lot better when I track down the creeps that took my dad." She glared angrily ahead of her.

"Won't the police help?" Leo asked.

"Funny thing," April said, turning to Leo. "When you tell them your dad's been kidnapped by alien brains in robot bodies, they don't take you all that seriously."

"I hear that," Mikey agreed sagely.

"April," Donnie said. "I promise you we will not rest until we find him."

"We won't?" Raph asked as he looked at Donnie incredulously. Leo elbowed his shoulder. "Careful!" Raph said angrily. He still held the unconscious Lana in his arms.

"No, we won't," Leo assured, ignoring Raph.

"Thank you," April said. "But it's not your fight."

"Yes, it is," Donnie said, placing his hand on hers.

"And apparently hers too," Mikey said, pointing at Lana.

Donnie blushed when April smiled up at him before he followed his brothers to the roof. He waved down at her once last time before heading to the lair.

When the four returned to the lair, Raph gently lowered her to the couch in the spot he put her before. The other turtles gathered around her and noticed her arms and legs were bruised where Snakeweed's tentacles wrapped around her. A large bruised started to form on the side of her face from when she hit the wall before too.

"Why isn't she healing?" Mikey asked, voicing the same question everyone else was thinking. Suddenly, he looked terrified and grabbed the sides of his head. "Is she dead?"

Donnie quickly grabbed her wrist and found a pulse.

"No, she's alive," Donnie said, somewhat relieved. "Just unconscious."

"So why isn't she getting better?" Raph asked, slightly worried. Lana got caught by Snakeweed because she protected him, and now look what happened. He felt that all of this was his fault. She acted so tough and cold towards them before, but stepped in to protect them multiple times. Compared to how she was before, she looked like a small, weak girl.

"What is wrong, my sons," a deep voice asked from behind them.

Master Splinter walked toward the couch as his sons stepped back for him to see a bruised and battered Lana. He noticed she wasn't healing, which confirmed his suspicions about her unique mutation.

"What should we do, Master Splinter?" Leo asked, concerned for the girl.

"Donatello, tend to her wounds," the rat said. Donnie nodded in response with a determined look on his face. "Other than that, we must let her rest and recover, while you all tell me exactly what happened."

The four brothers nodded. Donnie stayed behind to tend Lana while the others walked to the dojo to tell their sensei what happened. Raph was the last one to enter, and took one last look at Lana, noticing how fragile she looked, before continuing into the room.

**That was long, but I hope you guys liked it. Review so I know I should continue the story. I felt inspired to post this chapter quickly since only a few hours after I posted my first chapter I got good reviews. So, review again please!**


	3. Lana's Past

**Hey guys! I don't particularly like doing this 'talking to the readers' thing before and after the chapter because I think it's a waste, but it looks like some people actually read it since I keep getting reviews! Just to let you know, this chapter is going to focus more on Lana, learning a bit more about her, and developing her relationship with the turtles. Sorry if some people don't like that, but I had a huge headache after writing the previous chapter since I had to keep going back and forth from writing and watching parts of the episode, so I chose to take this approach this time, but the next chapter is on the next episode. Also, this chapter may be shorter, so sorry again.**

**Warning: this chapter may contain some suggested mature themes that may not be appropriate for everyone**

**Disclaimer: I don't own tmnt, just my OC**

Lana groaned as she slowly regained consciousness. The last thing she remembered was being squeezed to death by Snakeweed, failing to control her mutation, a weightlessness, and then searing pain before everything went black. She eyes fluttered open, pupils round, as she found herself lying on the same couch she woke up in before.

Her entire body ached as she raised her hand to see her arms black and blue with bruising, seeing none of her normal pale skin. She closed her eyes and focused her rage before opening her slitted eyes and her bruises slowly receding. For some reason, keeping a hold on her mutation was harder than usual this time, but she pushed until the pain lessened to a dull ache from strained muscles.

Her eyes blinked and in that second her pupils returned to normal. Feeling much better, she sat up and leaned forward, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach. She breathed deeply, trying to ignore her churning stomach as she heard someone enter the room.

"Lana!" a familiar voice shouted excitedly. "You're alive!"

Before she could move, Mikey tackled her in a bear hug, squeezing a bit too tightly. Lana patted the young turtle's head awkwardly before he released her, to sit right next to her. Lana patted her thighs and looked anywhere but at the turtle's excited, smiling face.

"So," Lana started. "How long was I out?"

"Three days," Mikey answered, the wide smile still on his face.

She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the growling of her stomach. Mikey giggled girlishly as her eyes widened and face blushed a deep red in embarrassment.

"Come on! To the kitchen!" Mikey said excitedly.

He grabbed her head and dragged her down the hallway towards the kitchen. She stumbled after him, not able to find her voice. She plopped her down in a stool while he went about getting her some food.

She looked around the kitchen, noticing it was quite dirty. The island had two strange piped leading into the floor. The counters looked sturdy enough, but some of the cabinet doors seemed on the verge of falling off. There was an old refrigerator on one side of the kitchen and an even older looking stove on the other. The fan above the stove had a neon sign for a diner that claimed it was open.

She jumped when Mikey placed a plate with a slice of pizza on front of her. It wasn't necessarily fresh, but it wasn't cold, and she hated cold pizza. Plus, her stomach only wanted some kind of food and she devoured it in seconds. She didn't realize how hungry she was. Mikey smiled contentedly as he ate his own pizza even faster than she did. She sat there, fidgeting, feeling quite uncomfortable in the silence.

"Well, thanks for the food," Lana said, not looking Mikey in the eye. "But, I got to go."

"What?" Mikey asked. His eyes seemed to sparkle as he pouted at her. She looked at him, frankly scared. He was trying to get her to stay and she feared it was working. Mikey reminded her too much of him.

"No," she whispered, closing her eyes as if in pain and quickly walked out of the room.

She almost made it out of the lair when a stern voice stopped her.

"Where are you going, child?" Master Splinter asked.

She turned around stiffly to see him standing at the entrance to the dojo. Leo stood next to him as Raph walked down the steps that led to the bedrooms and Donnie exited the garage. Mikey stood in the hallway, looking sad.

"I have things to do," Lana replied, not looking any of them in the eye. "I appreciate what you have done for me, but I'm fine now."

"Can I at least check to make sure before you go?" Donnie asked gently.

"Please?" Mikey begged, suddenly right in front of her on his knees and hands clasped together. "Pretty please with pizza on top?"

Lana looked down at him, her expression showing her extreme discomfort, before she sighed and headed towards Donnie. Mikey pumped his fist in the air behind her before following closely. Leo and Raph entered the lab with them as Master Splinter went to meditate.

They all gathered around as Donnie ran a general check-up.

"So, how did your bruises heal so quickly?" Donnie asked, not necessarily expecting an answer. Considering how cold she would act towards them he was quite frankly surprised she even allowed him to check on her.

"It's part of my mutation," Lana replied quietly after a period of silence. She figured they deserved some kind of explanation. The four turtles stared at her, shocked she said anything, but waited to see if she would say anything else. "When I concentrate enough, I can mutate myself."

"What about you changes?" Leo asked carefully.

"You know, other than the kitty eyes, fangs, and claws," Mikey said bluntly, earning a slap on the back of his head from all three of his brothers. Donnie stopped working to listen intently.

"Well, my eyes allow me to see better in the dark, farther with more clarity," Lana explained, laughing softly with a tender expression, but continued to stare at the ground. "My body becomes stronger, more resilient to damage. Something that could break my arm when I'm normal could simply be a tickle when I'm mutated. I can hear and smell better. Plus, I heal at an accelerated rate, as you've already noticed."

"Woah," Mikey said in awe. "That's awesome! Can I see your fangs again?" Mikey asked excitedly. His brother's face-palmed at Mikey's inability to read the atmosphere.

"Sorry, Mikey," Lana said sadly. "I'm not in complete control of my mutation. Usually it only happens when I'm angry."

"I've never heard of anything like that before," Donnie said.

"You've never met another mutant before either," Lana pointed out with a small smile. After telling them a bit about her, she felt slightly more comfortable with them.

"So how did you become a mutant?" Raph asked, finally speaking up, be immediately regretting it. Lana's expression turned dark and the tension in the room became thick as the silence dragged on.

"Oh!" Leo said, breaking the tense silence. "We have to go train with Master Splinter."

"Oh, Lana! Do you wanna watch me train?" Mikey asked excitedly.

"I think I'll just be in the way," Lana replied.

Mikey vigorously shook his head and denied her statement until Lana sighed and rolled her eyes as she allowed herself to get dragged away by Mikey yet again. She couldn't quite place why he hit a soft spot, and it wasn't just because Mikey reminded her of _him _either.

She paused slightly when she reached the stairs that led over the small river of water, but Mikey tugged her over quickly, not noticing her hesitation. Lana sat against the wall of the dojo, hugging her knees to her chest as the turtles knelt in front of Master Splinter, who stood calmly in front of them with his hands behind his back.

"Today, you will be sparring," their sensei said.

"Hai," the turtles replied with an obedient nod.

"Leonardo, Donatello – you will be first." Raph and Mikey relocated themselves to the side near Lana and knelt back down respectively as they observed the match. Donnie and Leo stood facing each other, ready to grab their weapons. "Hajime!"

In the blink of an eye Leo unsheathed his katanas as Donnie spun his bo staff in front of him. Leo lunged forward with narrowed, calculating eyes and slashed at his younger brother.

Lana gasped in surprise. _It looks like they are fighting each other seriously! Don't they worry about hurting each other? _Lana mentally shook herself. Why did she care about something like that? She didn't know these turtles, not really. Sure, they teamed up at the Kraang base, but that didn't mean they were friends or anything.

She shouldn't care about what happens to them. They were still strangers – strangers she would never allow herself to trust. Trusting lead to being betrayed, and she had learned her lesson well enough to never trust again.

Still, she couldn't explain why she hadn't left yet. She had plenty of chances, but somehow couldn't bring herself to leave. She blamed it on Mikey's puppy-dog eyes and the fact that she didn't have any place to go, but she knew that wasn't the reason. She would be lying if she said she wasn't scared of what the real reason could be though.

She fidgeted with his baggy pants, clenching and unclenching her fists around the cloth. She tried to ignore the sparring match before her, but she just couldn't pull her eyes away.

She was amazed at the grace and skill the blue and purple-masked turtle's displayed as they attacked and dodged. It looked like some elaborate, violent dance that they rehearsed a dozen times. Leo swung a katana across as Donnie knocked it easily away before jabbing his staff forward, only to have his brother deflect the blow with his other sword.

She couldn't help but envy the turtles. She had never learned how to use a weapon. All she ever had was her claws and teeth, and that was only when she could concentrate enough to mutate, which seemed to get harder with each passing day. She worried that her lack of control over her mutation would get her seriously hurt one day, or even worse, killed. Unfortunately, she just didn't know how to get a handle on it, and that scared her to her bones.

Donnie spun around and swung his staff down towards Leo. The eldest brother crossed his swords over his head to block and kicked Donnie in the plastron hard enough to knock him back on his shell. Before the purple-masked turtle could move, Leo stood above him with his sword pointed at his throat.

Lana gasped in surprise involuntarily as Master Splinter commanded, "Yame!" to end the match.

She rubbed her head in frustration. Why was she worried about the reptilian genius? The turtles were brothers. They would never hurt each other, she thought to herself.

Lana hadn't noticed that Raph heard her sharp intake, raising an eyebrow in her direction, but noticed her inattention to him. He frowned, not able to read the complex mix of emotions as they passed. He couldn't figure out what she was thinking, and for some unknown reason that made him irritated.

"Raphael, Michelangelo," Master Splinter said, shocking the normally hot-headed ninja back to attention. He and the youngest brother stepped to the center of the dojo as Donnie and Leo took their places on the sidelines, the former rubbing his head and wincing slightly.

Lana unconsciously sat up straighter, more interested in this match, though she didn't know why. Maybe it was because she was less familiar with sai and nun chucks?

"Hajime!" Master Splinter said, starting the match.

Raph immediately whipped out his sai and spun them in his hands until gripping them comfortably. Mikey held one nun chuck in his hand, one end held under his arm at the ready as the two circled each other. The two lunged at each other simultaneously, Raph losing patience while Mikey was just too excited to wait any longer.

Raph struck with a sai and his younger brother deflected it with expert use of his nun chuck. Mikey brought out his second weapon and quickly lashed out, but Raph jumped back and out of reach. Mikey laughed as the match continued, speedily evading each attack. Lana could tell that Mikey was easily the fastest of the brothers, watching him bounce around the room like an uncontrollable rocket.

"Too slow, bro," Mikey taunted, swinging his nun chuck so fast that they were simply a blur.

Raph growled in anger as he lunged at Mikey. His brother seemed to get under his skin more than usual today, but he couldn't figure out the reason in his rage. He stabbed at Mikey, but his brother quickly wrapped the chain of his weapon around Raph's wrist and flipped him to the floor behind him. Raph landed hard on his shell, glaring at Mikey, who was jumping excitedly.

"Did you see that, Lana? No one can beat the 'chucks!" Mikey bragged as he posed with his hands on his hips.

Lana chuckled a little, before looking on in surprise when Raph kicked his brother's feet out from under him. Mikey landed back on his shell as Raph jumped him, holding his sai crisscrossed near Mikey's neck. Mikey let out a squeak, looking scared.

"Yame!" their sensei yelled, ending the battle. The four turtles stood and moved to kneel in front of Master Splinter as the sparring session ended. "Michelangelo, you should never turn your back on an enemy." Afore mentioned turtle hung his head low in disappointment.

Lana was actually quite impressed with the turtles. Their skills were greater than she originally thought, though she didn't like to admit that she was wrong.

_Maybe… No! Why would I even think that? I work alone. I don't need the turtles to help me… But, I can't take on the Kraang alone. I can easily finish off a group of them, and maybe a base, like the one we were just at, with a lot of planning, but I don't think I can do much more than that on my own. Maybe, just maybe, I do need their help._

She didn't need to trust them, just work with them until the Kraang were taken care of. She could easily keep her guard up, waiting for the inevitable betrayal.

"Hey, we're about to go on patrol," Leo said, bringing her out of her thoughts. He held his hand out to her, but she ignored it and stood up on her own. "Do you want to come with us?"

Lana was about to accept, hoping they might run into the Kraang, when Master Splinter spoke up.

"Lana," he said. "Would you mind keeping me company? I think there are some things we need to discuss. My sons, it is time for you to begin your patrol."

Leo nodded obediently as the two youngest followed right behind as he left the dojo. Raph hesitated for a second before stealing a quick glance at a confused and wary Lana before leaving his leaving his sensei with the strange girl that seemed to preoccupy his mind.

"Have a seat, my dear," Master Splinter said as he knelt on the ground in the same position as his sons' had.

She nodded and cautiously knelt a few feet in front of him, mimicking his stance and found it was more comfortable than she originally thought. She bit her lip and averted her eyes nervously as the rat stared at her calmly.

"There is no reason to be nervous, Lana," the rat said kindly, chuckling softly. "I just want to talk to you, without my sons being nosy. That way, you can talk more freely, I think."

"What did you want to talk about?" Lana asked cautiously.

"I just simply wish to learn more about you," Splinter replied, a serious tone underlying his voice.

"My mother taught me not to talk to strangers," Lana responded coldly, narrowing her eyes. "I don't talk about my personal life to mutants I just met, see?"

"I am not going to force you to speak, but I would like to know who my sons' have been keeping company with. I am a father, so I worry for their safety."

Lana nodded and relaxed slightly, envying the turtles for having a father like Splinter, but tensed again. She couldn't let her guard down, even around this gentle-seeming rat. He seemed to know just what to see to make her open up, and she didn't like that.

"So, what do you want to know?" Lana asked, choosing her words carefully.

"You are not a full mutant," he stated more than asked.

Lana looked at him with wide eyes, feeling insecure and scared all of a sudden.

"H-How did you know that?" Lana almost shouted. She jumped back on her feet, raising her hands uncertainly. She attempted to bring her mutation to the surface and failed, which worried her even more. If this rat attacked her, she would lose.

"I didn't," Master Splinter said in a plain tone, a faint smile on his lips as he watched her reaction. "Really, Lana, you have nothing to fear from me. You are safe here."

She almost believed him as she knelt back down.

"So?" she asked coldly, eyes narrowed. "I'm a half mutant. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, I believe it goes without saying that a half mutant is not normal. I was hoping you could enlighten me as to your origin."

Lana's resolve cracked a little as she became uncertain. Master Splinter had been nothing but nice to her, and felt compelled to open up to him. She couldn't understand why she felt this way, but it was slowly winning over her vow of silence. She never told anyone about her past before, and didn't want to relive those days again. She felt that if she opened the flood gates, even just a crack, then everything would come pouring out, overwhelming her mind entirely.

Master Splinter saw her internal battle.

"Do not worry, Lana," Splinter said gently, coaxingly. "My sons will not know what you tell me, until you are ready to tell them for yourself."

Lana's last defense fell at these words and suddenly her eyes looked far away.

"I was born this way," she started.

"Born a half mutant?" Splinter asked softly, not wishing to cause her to close herself off once more.

"Yeah, my father was a mutant. My mother was American, but lived in Japan for a while. She went to a bar one night, alone. She was drunk when she left to head back to her hotel, but some guys cornered her. My father saved her from them, before they could-" Lana closed her eyes painfully, choking up a little as tears ran down her face. Splinter stayed silent as she worked up the courage to keep speaking. "The guys ran off when they got a good look at him, but my mother wasn't scared at all. She may have been drunk, but he saved her and that's all that mattered. He walked her home and she invited him inside for tea to repay him. Apparently, they were childhood friends, maybe something a little more. All I know is I was conceived that night."

"What happened after that?" the rat asked kindly, a gentle look on his face.

"My father stayed around for a bit, especially when he found out he would be a father, but his line of work was… unsavory. He was away for several years before returning, but my mother had moved on. She thought he was dead and married a stable Japanese man who raised me like I was his own. It wasn't hard to realize that I wasn't like the other kids. I had an argument at home once, I remember it was the maddest I had ever been. Then, I changed right in front of my mother. The pain was excruciating the first time I mutated, and I was so scared. But, my mother knew why it was happening and told me about my father."

"What was your father like?" Splinter asked, a caring expression on his face.

"You mean the mutant one right?" She continued when Splinter nodded. "Well, when he came to visit when my step-father wasn't home, he was kind of like you – stern, but loving. He told me about his travels, but my favorite were the stories about when he performed in the circus. One of his friends, a knife-thrower, taught him how to throw knives, and it took a lot of begging for him to teach me." Lana chuckled, smiling slightly despite the tears in her eyes. Suddenly, her expression grew dark. "But one day I noticed something different about him. He seemed to be forcing his smiles, and he argued with my mother the entire time. My mother shouted for him to leave, and he did. I found an envelope in my room that night. It was from my father."

Lana sat back and lifted her pant leg, revealing the tops of her boots that reached just below her knee. She slowly pulled out a wrinkled, aged envelope before crossing her legs. She held it in front of her, tears flowing down her face, but whether it was sadness or anger, Master Splinter couldn't tell.

"May I?" the rat asked gently, reaching his hand out slowly.

Lana gave it to him, looking him in the eyes before releasing it into his possession. He smiled sadly, finally seeing deep into her eyes. She put on an effective façade, but he could now see she was just a broken, vulnerable girl.

Master Splinter delicately opened the envelope, knowing she treasured it, and pulled out the piece of paper inside. He could barely read the chicken scratch inside.

_Lana,_

_I'm sorry that I have to tell you this way, but I won't be coming back. Your mother thinks it is best for me to leave and let you live a normal, human life. I want you to know that I will always love you, but I think your mother is right. I will only bring you farther away from society. But, I feel that you should know about something, but I hope you never encounter these creatures. They are called the Kraang. They are an alien race that abducted me and turned me into the mutant I am today. They took away my human life, but I refused to do the same to you. You have a future with the humans, and your mutant father can't be a part of that. I'm so sorry, my daughter._

_Love always,_

_Your Father_

Master Splinter read the letter and carefully folded it, replaced it in the envelope, and returned it to Lana. She took it and held it to her chest tightly, as if she could maintain some kind of connection with her father that way. He realized she was after the Kraang because it was their fault that her father couldn't be with her. The dojo was silent for a long time.

"I had a friend once," Lana said suddenly. "His name was Hikaru and he was my best friend. He was always so happy and joking around, kind of like Mikey. My mother told me to keep my mutation a secret because humans wouldn't be able to deal with it, but Hikaru was different. I felt like I could tell him anything. I was wrong. He called me a freak and a monster. I was all alone after that. When my mother found out, she sent me to live with her parents in America, New York actually. They loved me despite knowing about the real me. They home-schooled me and I didn't have much interaction with other humans because they lived in a cabin deep in the woods. But, they were old, and they died. I lived in the cabin for a bit before child services came to take me into a foster home. The couple was nice, lived in an upscale apartment in Manhattan, and couldn't have kids of their own, but I couldn't stay. I knew once they found out what I really was… I left and just wandered around after that."

Lana breathed deeply, emotions swirling inside her like a chaotic storm she couldn't control. She trembled as she fought unsuccessfully to keep the tears from falling. She had never spoken so much in a long time, and her mouth was dry. Master Splinter noticed this and brought some tea from his room to serve to her. She sipped at it hesitantly, hand shaking. She carefully put the drink down, not wanting to spill it on the area rugs.

Master Splinter felt pity for the poor girl and sat down next to her. He put at comforting hand on her shoulder and that was all she needed before she lunged at the surprised rat. She sobbed uncontrollably into his side, hugging him tightly. He didn't hesitate as he wrapped his arms around her, rubbing her back to calm her down.

**So, I hope this didn't bore you too much. I kind of like writing it. Hopefully you liked learning a bit more about Lana. Well, the next chapter is back to the action, so review if you want to read more!**


	4. Turtle Temper: Part 1

**I know I'm writing a lot and posting pretty frequently, but when you're in the groove, you go with it. Plus, I doubt I'll be able to post often once classes start, only once a week if luck is on our side. So, this chapter may be a little short, but I hope you all enjoy it!**

**Warning: this chapter contains mild language that may not be appropriate for everyone**

**Disclaimer: I do not own tmnt, just my OC**

After Lana had calmed down, she pulled away from Master Splinter. Her face was red in embarrassment, but the rat did not say anything about her breakdown. He simply suggested to drink some water and relax on the couch, stating that he needed to meditate. She may not have wanted to share anything with the rat, but afterwards she actually felt a lot better – like the weight of the world came off her shoulders. She did, however, feel somewhat guilty about not telling him the most important part.

So, Lana was lying on the couch, staring up at the ceiling blankly until the turtles returned. She bolted up to greet them, but stopped when she noticed their expressions. Raph looked angrier than usual; Leo looked a bit irritated; Donnie was worried; and Mikey carried on with a carefree smile. She raised an eyebrow at them as they knelt before their sensei to recount the event topside. Lana's ear's perked when she heard them mention the Kraang, anger boiling deep inside her.

"Not only did Raphael alert the Kraang," Splinter said, anger in his voice. "But, you got caught! On video!" Splinter looked down sternly at the downcast Raph.

"Sensei," Raph tried to explain. "He was the angriest, nastiest guy you'd ever met!"

"Except for you," Mikey interjected, causing Lana to laugh a little from the couch. Raph hit Mikey over the head. "Ow!"

"You should have herd the insults this guy was throwing as us! They were so… insulting!"

"Oh," the rat said. "I did not realize that he said mean things. Of course, you had no choice but to jeopardize your mission!"

"Burn," Mikey said tauntingly as Raph growled at him.

"You are ninja. You work in the shadows – in secret. This becomes difficult if there is proof of your existence in high definition!"

"Look," Raph reasoned. "We know where this guy lives. All we need to do is find him and shake him until the tapes pop out."

"Oh, there's no tape," Donnie explained, not realizing he wasn't exactly helping the situation. "Video phones use flash memory-" Donnie stopped when Raph growled at him angrily.

Lana vaguely thought that he was acting kind of like how she did before.

"Anger is self-destructive," their sensei said wisely.

"I always thought it was 'others'-destructive," Raph replied. Lana couldn't help but nodded in agreement, though no one noticed. Every time she needed to mutate, she would think only of things that would anger her. That was the only way she knew of how to control her mutation.

"Raphael! Stand up." Raph stood up, looking like a kicked puppy.

"Somebody's in trouble," Mikey sang tauntingly.

"All of you, follow me." The four turtles stood and followed after their sensei, who turned around to look at Lana. "Will you join us, Lana?" She nodded, confused as to why she should go to the dojo also, but followed anyway. The turtles looked just as confused when she complied with Master Splinter.

Splinter had Raph stand in the middle of the room while his brothers stood in a circle around him. They were armed with bows and arrows that had suction cups on the end instead of an arrowhead. Lana leaned against the wall and watched.

"Evade the arrows," Master Splinter said.

"No problem," Raph said confidently.

"Hajime!"

Mikey fired and arrow, closely followed by Leo. Raph dodged and flipped through the air, sai in his hands.

"Yame!"

An arrow almost his Splinter, but he easily caught it between two fingers before gripping it more securely.

"Again," Splinter ordered. "Except this time, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo – insult Raphael."

"Wait, insult _him_?" Donnie asked, dumbfounded.

"Yes."

"And he can't fight back?"

This immediately grabbed Raph's attention. He was used to retaliating.

"No," their sensei confirmed.

"Hehe," Donnie chuckled with a smile. "I'm feeling good about this plan."

"Hajime!"

Raph crouched slightly, ready to dodge the arrows as his brothers began circling him once more, Mikey chuckling evilly.

"You move like a bloated buffalo," Mikey said as he let fly an arrow.

Raph performed a split to duck below it, spinning elaborately to his feet. He glanced over at Lana to see her hand covering her mouth, trying to hold back a laugh.

"I do not!" Raph denied.

"And you're always whining," Leo joined in. "Poor me. Nobody understands me." Leo whined as if to mimic Raph and shot an arrow at his brother's shell.

"No, you don't understand- ugh!" Raph started before the arrow landing securing on his shell as he spun around.

"And," Donnie said, needing to think for a second. "Oh! You don't keep your back straight when doing omote kote gyaku." Donnie shot the arrow and hit his brother on his shell quickly followed by a third. "And you're ugly!"

Mikey laughed at his brother's expense as Raph spun towards Donnie.

"And gassy!" Mikey added, landing another hit.

"Stop it!" Raph shouted as he tried to keep an eye on all of his brothers, but failing miserably.

"Aww you talk so tough, but on the inside you're just a scared little baby," Leo said as he and his brothers laughed.

"Who needs his bottle," Donnie continued, letting another arrow loose.

"And his diaper changed," Mikey said, shooting more arrows at his hot-headed brother.

"What's the matter Raph? Gonna cry?" Leo asked in fake concern, landing another hit.

"I – am – not – gonna cry!" Raph shouted back, getting hit in the head with the arrows when one hit him right in the face and he got knocked to the ground.

"Hah," Mikey sighed in content with a smile as he gazed into the distance. "I wish this moment could last forever."

"You know what?" Raph said, standing up abruptly. "Forget this! This is stupid!"

"Aw, it didn't," Mikey complained.

Raph spun towards him, fuming and revealed the multiple arrows stuck to his shell to Lana, who started to feel back for him.

"Ninniku seishin is the ability to endure insults with patience and humility," Master Splinter said when Raph walked to stand in front of him looking rather dejected. "You cannot be a true ninja until you master it."

Raph looked down as the two arrows on the side of his head popped off and fell to the ground. Mikey laughed before going quiet whne Raph turned to him angrily. The hot-headed turtle clenched his fist, ready to pummel his brother before their sensei interrupted.

"Understood?" he asked sternly.

"Hai, sensei," Raph replied, turning back to face Master Splinter.

"You must get that video back using reason, no force."

"Hai," the turtles chorused as they left the dojo.

Raph was left back as he struggled to get the arrows off his shell, but unable to reach them all. Lana approached him as she could see his frustration rise.

"You okay?" she asked, looking genuinely concerned.

Raph simply stared in slight surprise at the girl, at a loss at what to say. She was different, somehow – nicer, and maybe more open?

"Some of the things they said got kind of harsh," Lana continued, a small smile gracing her pale rose lips. Her brilliant yellow eyes stared up at him and he felt his face grow warm.

"Um, yeah, right, it's no big deal," Raph stuttered, his face suddenly feeling like it was on fire. He looked away and scratched the back of his head nervously. What was wrong with him?

"So," Lana said, dragging the word out as she rocked back and forth on her feet. "Here, let me get those." She reached behind him, but Raph jump away slightly, not expecting her to do that. "It's okay, I'm just taking the arrows off."

Raph allowed her to walk behind him and tug the arrows off his shell. He couldn't think of anything more embarrassing than having a cute girl pull suction-cupped arrows off his shell after his brothers insulted him like that – wait, what? Did he just think Lana was cute? Okay, there was seriously something wrong with him. He was turning into Donnie for crying out loud!

"There, all done," Lana said, walking in front of him with her arms full of arrows. "Where do these go?"

"Oh, over here," Raph said, motioning for her to follow him.

He led her to the corner of the dojo where a cardboard box that had the bows leaning up against it and dropped the arrows in the box with the rest of them.

The two went to join the others when something on the weapons wall caught Lana's eye. It was a dozen throwing knifes, black and sleek. She couldn't help but admire the craftsmanship. The knives were thin with a double edge blade, but durable and extremely sharp. They had a small hole on the top of the handle so she could easily twirl it around her finger.

"What are you looking at?" Raph asked curiously.

"These are amazing!" Lana said quietly in awe, picking one of the knives up and inspecting it.

"Oh, those things? No one even uses those. You can have them if you want." Right as the words left Raph's mouth he mentally yelled at himself. Those were Master Splinter's property and he just offered it to a girl they just met.

"Raphael," a stern voice said from behind them. Master Splinter stood with his hands clasped behind his back as he looked down at his second eldest son.

Raph turned around nervously, stumbling over his words as he tried to explain.

"You see, senesi, funny thing. I was just – I mean, she –" Raph stuttered before Master Splinter held up his hand to silence him. Raph prepared to get hit with his sensei's jade walking stick.

"Do not worry Raphael," Master Splinter said, surprising his son. "I think they would be perfect for Lana."

"Wait, what?" Raph asked, dumbfounded, but his voice was easily drowned out by the excited squeal that came from the girl standing next to him.

"Are you sure Master Splinter?" Lana asked excitedly, a brilliant smile on her face.

"Of course," he replied with a chuckle. "Let me go grab the leg holsters that go with them."

Raph's jaw dropped as Lana caught his sensei in a bear hug, not able to look away from her radiant smile. He was even more surprised when Master Splinter returned with two leg holsters that she eagerly strapped to her thighs securely, the individual knife sheaths facing outward. She slipped each knife into place, six on each leg.

"Now, I ask that you accompany my sons," Master Splinter said, herding the two out of the dojo. "If they get into any trouble, I'm sure you could be of assistance."

"No problem," Lana said with a smile.

"Wait!" Raph shouted, finally finding his voice. The other three turtles looked in their direction. "Does she even know how to use those things?" Raph asked incredulously, though he really was worried she would hurt herself.

Lana looked up at Master Splinter, who nodded toward the punching bag shaped like a dummy. She smile viciously before looping her finger in the hole of one of the knives and flipping it up in the air. She expertly caught before hurling it toward the dummy.

"Woah," Mikey said as he and his brothers watched the knife sink into the dummy right in the middle of the chest. "That was so cool! Do it again!"

Lana laughed as she went to retrieve her throwing knife and replace it in its sheath.

"Well, what are waiting for?" Lana asked brightly, hands on her hips. "Let's go get that video!"

The group stood on a roof across the street from the apartment of the man that caught them on camera. Lana decided she was starting to warm up to the turtles, a little at least, and that man wasn't going to get away with the video.

Her slitted pupils dilated in anticipation as a short overweight man with a comb over left the building, talking loudly.

"That's right," the man said, speaking into his phone. "I swear on my mother's grave that these guys are frogs and they know kung fu. You can't tell me that's not worth something!"

Lana laughed into her hand when she heard him call them frogs.

"You seem," Donnie said carefully, thinking of the right word, "different."

"I think you're imagining things," Lana replied with a sly smile. "Let's go."

The five of them jumped off the building and landed nimbly on their feet, surrounding the man, who shouted in surprise.

"I'll call you back," he said as he hung up. "Lay one finger on me, frog, and I'm calling the cops." The man backed up and pointed a finger at them. Lana laughed again when he mentioned frogs. "Wait, who the hell are you? Cat girl?" He asked rudely, noticing her canines, claws, and eyes. Lana hissed angrily at him and he stepped back again.

"We're not gonna hurt you," Raph said with great difficulty, grinding his teeth.

"Tell that to your pet," the man replied.

Lana yowled and lunged forward before Mikey and Donnie grabbed her arms and barely held her back. Mikey wrapped his arms around her in a restrictive hug.

"Nice kitty," Mikey said soothingly, slowly patting her head. She would have been furious if not for the fact that Mikey's actions were actually calming her down some. She growled, but stayed put.

"What do you want, freak?"

"We got off on the wrong foot last night," Raph said. "Some things were said and, well, we would just like that video back." Leo elbowed him. "Please."

The turtles smile nervously, Donnie elbowing Lana so she would smile too, but it ended up just looking like she was baring her fangs at him.

"What are you going to give me for it?" the man asked with a greedy smile.

"Give you for it?"

"Well, I figured I got you over a barrel, so you've got to make it worth my while."

"I'll make it worth your while," Raph said with a smirk. "I won't take your head and smash it against the-"

"Okay," Leo interrupted, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Okay, thank you, Raphael. I will take over."

Leo stepped forward as Raph crossed his arms with a huff. Lana growled and pulled against Mikey. This man was starting to get under her skin.

"So, what are you looking for?" Leo asked politely.

"Uhh," the man said, thinking to himself. "A cool mil ought to cover it."

"What the hell!" Lana snarled. "Does it look like we have that kind of money?"

"We do have some Canadian quarters that fell through the grate," Mikey offered.

"I could make serious money off of this thing," the man said, waving his phone in their faces. "And if you don't wanna pay, I'll hold onto it until someone else does."

"That's it!" Raph said. He grabbed the man's arm and flipped onto the ground. "Hand over the video, or so help me I'll kick your hairy butt all the way to New Jersey!" Lana snarled in agreement.

"Uh, guys!" Leo said anxiously. "The Kraang!" Leo pointed down the street as two Kraang got in the white van and sped towards them. "Raph!"

Raph, who had his fist raised to pummel the greedy bastard, looked at the oncoming van.

"Look out!" Leo shouted, about to jump in, but a black and white blur moved faster.

Lana moved in front of the van and threw Raph and the human out of the way and the headlights grew closer. She closed her eyes in anticipation of an impact, her arms in front of her defensively.

The van tires screeched to a halt mere inches away from Lana as she opened one eye. The turtles looked on in shock, not knowing what exactly happened. The Kraang driving the van Looked towards the Kraang next to it.

"Kraang," it said in its robotic voice. "It is the one that was captured by the Kraang, but is no longer captured by the Kraang."

"Indeed, Kraang," said the other Kraang, looking towards the driver. "We should capture the one that was once captured by the Kraang, but is no longer captured by the Kraang, for the Kraang."

"Agreed, Kraang."

"Aw shit," Lana said, not believing what was happening. She got lucky at the base when none of the Kraang recognized her, but she knew it couldn't last forever.

Another Kraang driving a small box truck tried to pass the van.

"Let's not let this one get away," Leo said.

Raph picked up a barrel and threw it at the truck just as Lana hurled one of her knives at the front tire. The Kraang lost control of the truck, swerving dangerously before hitting a sturdy garage bay door head on.

"Well, that was easy," Raph said with a confident smirk as he crossed his arms.

The two Kraang from the van stepped out, holding their weapons aimed towards Lana. She hissed angrily and continued growling, baring her fangs and claws, as she backed away from the advancing Kraang. She was vaguely aware of three Kraang exiting the back of the truck and preoccupying the turtles.

She was on her own.

"The one that is important to Kraang research should come with Krang willingly," one of them said.

"The one that is important to Kraang research is too valuable to be destroyed, but can be hurt by Kraang without being destroyed by Kraang," the other one said.

"Go to hell," Lana snarled angrily. She yowled as she lunged toward one of the robots, scratching and clawing before it grabbed her hoodie and threw her across the street and into the garage door next to the truck. The metal dented some from the force, but the Kraang knew they could be rough with her without killing her.

"Lana!" she heard one of the turtles shout.

"Get the video!" she shouted back as she ripped her knife out of the tire. She stood and held the knife defensively as the two Kraang approached, despite the chaos around them.

"The one that is important to Kraang research will not come willingly, Kraang," said one of them.

"Then, the one that is important to Kraang research will come not willingly," the other replied.

They fired their weapons at her, but Lana weaved in and out of the lasers as she got closer to the robots. She leapt through the air and kicked one of them down, stabbing the other in the chest with her knife. Unfortunately, she didn't realize the knife wasn't long enough to damage the mechanical being to disable it, and the Kraang easily picked her up and threw her down on the pavement.

The impact forced the air from her lungs and the ground caved in around her. Her ears rang loudly and her head pounded. Her vision darkened and brighten and she knew she was losing control of her mutation as her vision dulled back to a normal human's. She coughed violently as she rolled over, feeling blood run down her chin as she got to her hands and knees. She saw her knife and reached for it, but her slow reflexes weren't fast enough as one of the Kraang kicked it out of her reach and towards the other battle.

She gasped and pushed herself onto her backside and backed away. She tried to mutate her body again, but an overwhelming fear prevented her from doing so. She pushed herself farther away as the Kraang she kicked down stood and advanced towards her with his partner beside him.

"No," Lana whimpered. "No!" She shouted before one of the Kraang hit her over the head with the butt of his rifle.

Raph was just thrown out of the back of the truck and landed on his brothers in a heap. They groaned and rubbed their heads before getting to their feet.

"Nice going, Raph," Leo said.

"What did I do?" Raph asked angrily.

"What did you do?" Leo repeated incredulously. "You left the three of us in the middle of the fight to go and yell at somebody! We could have stopped them, but thanks to your temper the guy with the tape-"

"Again, technically it's a flash-" Donnie interjected.

"Not now! –is in the hands of the Kraang! How are we supposed to find them?"

"Look! The truck's leaking!"

"Alright! We can follow the trail to their hideout!"

"And then we bash some bots!" Raph said, punching his fist into his palm. Leo stared at him meaningfully. "What?"

"_We_ are going to bash some bots," Leo said as he looked to the two younger brothers, arms crossed. "_You_ are going home."

"What? Are you kidding? Come on, guys, are we gonna let Leo power trip like this?" He looked for support from Mikey and Donnie.

"I think Leo's right," Donnie said after exchanging a look wit Mikey.

"You gotta control your temper," Leo said. "Until then, we just can't trust you."

Leo turned to leave, but Mikey caught his attention.

"Wait, where's Lana?" Mikey asked worriedly, looking around.

"Oh no, let's go!" Leo shouted as he led the brothers, sprinting back to where the fight started.

"No!" a feminine voice shouted with complete and utter terror.

"Lana!" the turtles shouted in concern. They had never heard her sound like that before.

The saw a Kraang knock her out with the butt of its gun as its partner reached down and threw her roughly over its shoulder. Even from here they could see the blood that ran down from the corner of her mouth. Raph was the first one to shake off the shock and ran towards the Kraang and they threw her into the back of the van.

"Wait, you alien robot bastards!" Raph shouted in rage as the van sped off. He went to chase after it when he heard his youngest brother.

"Raph!" Mikey called, looking down sadly at something in his hand.

Raph stomped over, barely able to control his rage, but froze when he saw what Mikey was holding.

"No," Raph said quietly, rage and grief mixing into his voice.

Raph took the throwing knife from Mikey, holding it as it if would break from the slightest tremor. As Lana's knife lay in his hand, he suddenly looked confused. He rubbed the liquid that covered the blade on his fingers and held it up to the light. The turtles gasped as they say the bright red blood. The four turtles looked at each other, fear, concern, and rage being exchanged.

Raph clenched Lana's throwing knife in his hand, ignoring the pain when the blade cut deep into his palm.

"Let's go bust some heads," Raph said in a low voice of pure anger as he walked off.

"No!" Leo yelled. "I'm the leader, and I said you have to go home. Right now you're just proving the point that you can't control your anger and we can't trust you when you're like this."

"They took Lana, guys! You're going to need more than just the three of you to get Lana _and_ the phone!"

"We'll manage," Leo said sternly. Mikey and Donnie looked at their eldest brother skeptically, but said nothing. "Come on, guys. We have to hurry."

Leo turned and left, followed by Donnie. Mikey hesitated and looked back at Raph.

"Sorry Raph," Mikey said sadly before turning away from him. "We'll get her back."

**So, instead of doing the whole episode, I decided to leave you with a cliffhanger! I know, I'm evil. I'm worried that I might not be getting the character's personality's right, so if someone could let me know, that'd be awesome. Remember to review if you like it! I keep every email of review notifications because I really appreciate it! Again, I'm going to stress for all you readers to review! I want to know what you like, what you don't, which hopefully isn't much, and I love details and specifics! You are all welcome to PM me too, of course! The more reviews I get the faster each chapter comes out! **


	5. Turtle Temper: Part 2

**Hey guys! Before you read this chapter, I changed the ending of the previous one. I had a direction in mind, but decided to go with something else, so I altered the ending of the last chapter. Everything else is the same, just the ending is different. So, if you're confused when you start reading this chapter, that's why. Enjoy!**

**Warning: this chapter contains mild language that may not be appropriate for every one**

**Disclaimer: I do not own tmnt, just my OC**

Raph paced the kitchen angrily, his pet turtle named Spike sitting on the island eating a leaf.

"Who does Leo think he is?" Raph vented. "So what if I have a temper. I'm still the best fighter we got! In fact, if anything, my anger makes me a better fighter! They need a fighter like me right now. The Kraang took Lana, and we need to get her back! They won'y be able to do that without me. You understand me, don't you, Spike?"

Raph turned to lean on the island, observing his pet.

"Chew on your leaf if you understand me," Raph said, looking for some kind of confirmation that at least Spike was still on his side even when his brother's weren't.

Spike took a bite out his leaf, chewing with a contented smile.

"Yeah, I thought so," Raph said with a smile.

"I understand you too," a voice said from the kitchen entryway, startling Raph.

"Seriously!" Raph said, irritated from being spooked so easily by his sensei. "You gotta knock or something!"

"Let me tell you a story."

"Sensei, I'm not in the mood for a story."

"Spike, chew on you are in the mood for a story."

The two looked at Spike as he took another bite out of his leaf.

"Very well," Master Splinter said. Raph groaned and put his head on the island countertop as his father began to speak. "When I was a young man, I fell in love with a woman."

"Oh! Hey, is it that late?" Raph mimed looking at a wrist watch and started to leave before Splinter stopped him.

"Sit." Raph sat back down with a sigh. "Her name was Tang Shen, and I was not the only one who loved her. There was another man competing for her attention – Oroku Saki."

"Shredder," Raph said softly, remembering what his sensei told him before about Oroku Saki being the Shredder.

"One day, he insulted me in front of her. He called me many things." The rat paused, remembering everything thing his old friend had said that day as clearly as if it was yesterday. "I felt I could not let those insults go unanswered." Master Splinter paused again, looking regretful. "I lost my temper, and over time our rivalry festered into hatred until Shredder sought to finish me."

Master Splinter could hear the crackling of the monstrous blaze, almost feel the heat of the fire burning next to him. He remembered the devastating pain, sadness, desperation, and loss as he held his late lover, cold in his arms despite the heat around them.

"And I lost my beloved Tang Shen," the rat finished.

"But, it," Raph said. "It wasn't your fault. Shredder insulted you. Y-You had no choice."

"No choice?" Master Splinter asked, turning back to face his son. Anger colored his voice, but his anger was directed towards himself and his foolish mistake. "I could have chosen to ignore him. I could have chosen for his words to wash over me – like a river over stone. But, I let him anger me. It was _I _who made his words into weapons."

Master Splinter stood in front of his son.

"That's the choice _I _made," the rat said as he put his hand on Raph's shoulder. "What choice will _you _make?"

His sensei left Raph to think by himself.

Raph knew Master Splinter was right. He shouldn't have let what some stranger said get to him like that. Maybe if he kept his cool, Lana wouldn't have been taken by the Kraang.

"Lana," he said slowly. He pulled out her throwing knife that he had place in belt. His and Lana's blood was dry and crusted over the previously pristine blade.

He closed his eyes, a slightly pained expression on his face as he remembered what she looked like. She was on the ground with an arm held in from of her defensively. She looked so terrified and small, but he couldn't even do anything about it.

He grew angry at himself for not being able to save her at that time, but he could go and do that now. For some reason, when he saw her look so small…

He didn't even know. All he knew is that he wanted to go get her. Plus, his brother's might need his help.

Leo, Mikey, and Donnie crouched behind some crates. In the center of the room stood some kind of large equipment with some pipes leading through the floor and away, all holding a large amount of mutagen.

Nearby, a group of five Kraang stood around the man that had the recording of the four turtles. Other than stacks of crates that lined the circumference, the room was bare.

"Where's Lana?" Mikey whispered.

"I don't know," Donnie replied.

"Let's take out the Kraang first and then we can look for her," Leo said.

The brothers quieted down as they peered around the crates.

"The image that is the image on the phone is pleasing to the eye of Kraang," said the only Kraang that wore his human disguise.

"This is true," another replied. "Kraang is looking, what is known in your terms as, handsome, on this phone."

"W-Well," the man stuttered as he sat roped in a rolling chair. "Y-Y-You guys drive a hard bargain. Tell you what, I'll drop it down to five-hundred thousand, and you can keep the phone!" The Kraang turned away from him, looking at the phone again. "Okay, four-hundred thousand!"

"This is the fight with the creatures known as the turtles," one of the Kraang said.

"The usefulness with be proven usefully with the more watching of this," another added.

"Also," the disguised Kraang said. "This is being a good image of Kraang."

Leo signaled Mikey to use his chain to wrap around the lower support for the chair the man was in so they could pull him away.

"We should be showing the image of Kraang to Kraang."

Mikey slowly began to ease the chair in their direction. The man turned around in surprise to see the blue, orange, and purple-masked turtles behind him.

"Don't worry," Leo whispered to him. "We're gonna get you out of here."

"What about my phone?" the man asked in a normal voice.

"Shh!" Leo shushed.

"Don't shush me," the man said angrily with a glare. "I ain't leaving here without my phone."

The Kraang turned around at the noise and noticed them.

"Stop the one that needs to be stopped," the disguised Kraang ordered.

"Stop," two of the Kraang said as they stepped forward and aimed their rifles at them.

"Remind me why we have to rescue this guy," Donnie said.

The turtles leapt into action as the Kraang opened fire at them. Leo weaved in between shots and unsheathed his katanas as he threw his body into one of the shooting Kraang. The other one aimed at Mikey as he ran around him, and once the Kraang turned to follow, Donnie jumped behind the Kraang and took it out with his staff. Another Kraang ran up behind Donnie, who dodged as Mikey took the Kraang out.

As the turtles were preoccupied with the Kraang, the human man looked to find his phone on the ground nearby. He used his feet to push himself towards the phone, but Leo unknowingly kicked it across the room towards the mutagen filled equipment when he dodged an attack.

The phone stopped right under an unprotected pipe that mutagen coursed through. The man pushed himself towards the phone once more as the fighting continued around him. A stray rifle shot hit the leading wheel of his chair and knocked him to the floor.

"Got it!" the man yelled triumphantly as he laid a hand on the screen of his phone, oblivious to the arachnid that sat on the other side of the phone.

Another stray shot hit the pipe above his head, breaking it and releasing a stream of mutagen at the man. The man screamed loudly as he watched the thick liquid fall on him.

Lana jerked awake when at a loud noise from above her. Her eyes shot to the ceiling as she heard more yelling, shooting, and general fighting. She tried to get up, but found she couldn't move an inch.

She looked down to find herself secured to a large metal slab-like table. Thick braces attached to the slab were clamped tightly around her waist, ankles, wrists, and even her neck. She struggled in vain against her restraints, but knew her normal human body wouldn't have the strength to break out. She tried to concentrate to mutate herself, but couldn't due to the pounding headache.

She glanced around her surroundings to find a rather sparse room with a couple stacks of crates place along the edges. A wide column stood in the middle of the room, but what caught her attention was the glowing mutagen flowing through it and lighting the room.

She struggled again, grunting when her head pounded more violently. Two Kraang on the other side of the column came over when they heard the noise and stopped by the metal slab. She glared fiercely at them, but her gazed faltered when they simply stared back at her.

She tried to jerk away as one reached toward her, but it simply picked up a scalpel that had been laid next to her, but she couldn't see.

"What's that for?" Lana asked skeptically, eyeing the knife nervously.

"The one that is important to Kraang research may not be captured by the Kraang in the near future from this point in time," one of the Kraang said.

"Kraang must take sample of the one that is important to Kraang research so that the one important to Kraang research is no longer needed," the other one continued.

Lana didn't know what they meant right away, but quickly realized what they meant. One of her wrists was released and one of the Kraang grabbed her wrist to hold it over the end of the table. She tried to pull away, but the iron grip was solid and cold.

Suddenly, multiple things happened at once. A section of the ceiling fell on the other side of the room, Leo, Donnie, and Mikey falling with it. The Kraang dug the knife deeply and slowly into Lana's arm and she screamed in pain as she closed her eyes in agony.

"Lana!" she vaguely heard, but her mind was overwhelmed with the pain as her blood quickly leaked from her wrist.

In addition to her mutant body being generally tougher, it was also more resilient to pain. In her human body, the pain seemed to be more acute and it easily took control of her mind as she continued to scream, though the cries were becoming weaker as she began to feel light-headed from blood loss.

"Donnie!" Leo shouted. "Take care of Lana!"

Donnie nodded seriously as he leapt to the aid of their female friend as Leo and Mikey tried to distract what Mikey had named Spiderbite. Donnie easily took out the Kraang, making the beaker break on the floor, splattering broken glass and a large amount of Lana's blood around the area.

Donnie searched for something to stop the bleeding, something to tie the wound up, but found nothing. He noticed that the Kraang left the straps for her throwing knives, with the weapons still sheathed, on her. He quickly unstrapped one of them, sliding it out from under her limp body, getting worried as she lazily turned her head toward him and saw her eyes didn't seem to really _see _him. Donnie moved to her wrist and overlapped the material a couple times to apply enough pressure around her small, thin wrist.

He managed to secure it as tight as possible before Spiderbite noticed him. He hit the turtle hard enough to send him flying into the crates beside his brothers, effectively cornering them.

"Play times over, frogs," the creature said as it approached them menacingly.

"Wow," a new, but familiar, voice said from the floor above them. "I didn't think this guy could get any uglier."

"Raph!" Donnie and Mikey chorused excitedly.

The red-masked turtle jumped and flipped down into a crouch on the other side of Spiderbite.

"Well, I think you've been punished long enough," Leo said lightly. "Come and join us."

"Oh, hey," Spiderbite said as he turtled to face Raph. "It's the kung fu frog with the salad tongs."

"Hey, it's the stupid loudmouth that's about to get his butt kicked," Raph replied easily as he swung his sai before gaining a comfortable grip on them.

Spiderbite spat his acidic saliva at the turtle only for Raph to move slightly out of the way as it passed him. Spiderbite then rolled around the other three turtles using the four spider-like legs on his head and spat acid in a circle around them. They feel through to the floor below when the floor dissolved and hit a grated floor above a large pool of mutagen.

"Uh," Donnie said nervously. "Let's not fall through this floor, okay?"

On the floor above them, the fight continued between Raph and Spiderbite.

"Dance for me, frog," Spiderbite said as he spat a volley of acid at him.

Raph jumped back repeatedly to dodge, dropping both of his sai in the process, only to trip over something solid and cold behind him. He fell gracelessly on the other side and stood as he rubbed his head, wondering what he tripped over.

He was shocked to find Lana looking even paler than usual with one of her thigh straps wrapped tightly around her wrist as blood slowly moved down to her fingertips to drop off of them and splash into a larger amount of what Raph assumed was also her blood. He vaguely noticed bits of broken glass mixed in with her blood, but was more concerned about the dark circles under her eyes and her shallow breathing that sounded labored, as if it was a chore to stay alive. He clenched his fists angrily when he saw two Kraang destroy in the corner, but was brought back to the present when Spiderbite spoke again.

"Oh, that kid?" he said nonchalantly. "Those guys said they had big plans for her. Apparently they've been looking for that bitch for a _long_ time."

Raph growled angrily, but tried to calm down as he remembered what his sensei said.

"Watch me turn your friends into frog fries," Spiderbite continued. "I'll serve them up with your salad tongs." Spiderbite lowered his rear end to the ground before jumping back through the hole in the floor, using the equivalent of a spider web string to control his descent.

Raph growled again as he quickly followed, picking up his sai on the way as he lunged through the hole after the creature. Raph held the string as he swung around it before he landed on the creature and cut the string. Spiderbite landed hard on the ground as he dropped the rest of the way while Raph landed on the ground easily.

Spiderbite quickly got to his feet and roared at the red-masked turtle who stood his ground.

"Aw," Spiderbite taunted. "Froggy thinks he can stop me. Ribbit, ribbit." Raph didn't react. "What's that, tadpole? Are you too scared to hop off that lilypad?"

Raph breathed in deeply before exhaling slowly as Spiderbite continued taunting him.

"Like a river over stone," Raph said quietly, finding a calmness within him.

He smile confidently and charged at Spiderbite. Spiderbite struck at him with two of his legs, but Raph easily dodged him as he launched a spinning kick of his own successfully followed by another kick. Raph landed a few punches on his opponent before throwing a third kick, knocking back the whimpering Spiderbite.

He tried to strike at the turtle with all four of his legs. Hoping Raph was distracted, Spiderbite spat acid on him, but the turtle simply pushed one of the creature's legs in the way to catch the blow. Spiderbite inspected the wound before turning back to Raph.

"That's some kung fu, frog," Spiderbite said.

Mikey, Leo, and Donnie landed behind his brother to back him up if need be.

"We're not kung fu frogs," Raph replied confidently. "We're ninja turtles."

The four ninja turtles leapt into action as Spiderbite threw all four of his legs at his adversaries. Leo parried one with his twin katanas as Mikey used his nun chucks to slide across another to deliver a devastating kick. Spiderbites rolled back from the blow and propelled himself into the air as Donnie and Raph jumped up around him to attack him simultaneously, Donnie with his staff and Raph with yet another kick. The double blow forced Spiderbite down to the ground. Spiderbite whimpered as he slide back and the turtles regrouped in front of him. Raph stepped forward and stomped onto Spiderbite's phone, crushing it to pieces.

"No, my phone!" Spiderbite shouted, reaching for his destroyed phone from where he sat.

The brothers advanced on the creature, circling him with his back against the column of mutagen that stood in the center of the room. Spiderbite looked around and saw no other choice but to retreat.

"You guys are gonna regret this," he said in parting as he leapt up through the hole in the ceiling and escaped.

The turtles went to follow until Raph separated from them. They looked confused, but the determined look on his face made them follow him instead. Plus, they would need all four brothers to take down Spiderbite.

Raph ran up to Lana, who still lay on the slab with her hand limply hanging off the edge. The blood seemed to have stopped, but she still looked dangerously pale.

"We have to get her back to the lair," Raph said.

He took his sai and carefully broke the remaining restraints.

"But Spiderbite-" Leo started.

"Can wait," Raph interrupted as he gingerly picked up Lana in his arms, feeling how frightfully cold she was.

Donnie and Mikey looked at each other before glancing at their older brothers. Usually it was Leo being the voice of reason to Raph's urge to pummel anything in sight and this change was slightly uncomfortable. Leo was going to argue, but stopped.

"You're right," Leo said with a sigh.

Leo couldn't believe he acted like Raph just then. Of course, Lana was more important and her condition didn't look good. Leo noticed how their encounter with Lana from the very start had begun to change his brother, and he couldn't tell if it was for the better or worse, but he had a feeling it was for the better.

"Let's go," Leo said, sheathing his katanas as Donnie and Mikey followed suite.

Raph nodded sagely as he left with his brothers, hoping Lana would be okay because he didn't know what he would do if she wasn't.

**Hello, hope you enjoyed! Sorry, the chapter was short, but I thought this would be a good place to stop. Review so I know I should keep writing! I appreciate the following and favorite-ing of my story and me as an author, but reviews are what really get me in gear to right more. So, if you want to read more, review!**


	6. Lana's Past: Part 2

**Hello again! I was originally gonna start the next episode this chapter, but things ended up taking more time to develop things so the next episode with definitely be next chapter. Sorry, this chapter's short, but the next one will definitely be nice and long! This is labeled as Lana's Past: Part 2 because it's more about her past and you learn more about her. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own tmnt, just my OC**

Lana slowly came to consciousness as a strong smell of antiseptic. The smell of overpowering even to her dull human sense of smell. Her mouth was dry and she still felt light headed. She lay on some kind of had surface, and her head buzzed annoyingly.

She opened her eyes as a flash of blue light almost blinded her and found that the buzzing in her head was just a certain turtle working on a project. She looked to the side to see Donnie working on something and realized her bright surroundings must have been the interior of purple-masked turtle's lab. Donnie had a welding helmet over his head as he used his blowtorch to meld together two pieces of sheet metal.

Lana had to work harder than she would have liked to lift her arm so she could rub her head in an attempt to sooth her raging migraine, but a sharp tug on her arm gave her pause. She looked down to see a needle inserted in the crook of her elbow. She following the thin tubing to an IV bag that hung on its stand.

She painfully sat up, muscles screaming from the unwanted movement. She took the IV out and her eyes were drawn to the thick white bandages that covered her forearm where the Kraang had made the incision.

She clench a fist of her injured arm and winced slightly at the pain. The Kraang had cut deeper than the simple skin and into her muscle tissue. If she didn't want to wait for weeks as the muscle healed, she would have to mutate.

Lana tried to concentrate on her mutation, but couldn't bring it to the surface. She wanted to attribute her lack of control to the massive pounding in her head, but she knew it was something else.

Before Hikaru betrayed her, she could control her mutation perfectly, but over the years her control gradually began to decline to when only riling her emotions could bring it out. Mainly, it was remembering the pain and anger she felt when her only friend betrayed her, but the memories of what the Kraang did when they first captured her worked too.

Lana growled in frustration at her weakened state, not even being able to mutate to heal herself, but the only noise that came out was a pitiful whine that sounded more like a kicked puppy and an irritated predator.

Donnie heard the noise and stopped his work. He had been checking on Lana periodically, namely when he thought he heard her stir, but would usually just see her in the same exact position every time.

However, when he glanced over at his patient this time, he was surprised to see Lana sitting up with her legs hanging off of his medical table. She had ripped the IV out of her arm, and small drops of blood came from the open wound, but it was nothing serious – she had obviously been careful when she had taken it out.

Donnie threw his mask to the ground and rushed over to the girl as she tried to jump off the table to stand. Lana's legs, still very weak, buckled underneath her as the turtle made it just in time to catch her. He supported her as she reluctantly sat back on the table, though Donnie had to lift her up onto it.

"How are you feeling?" Donnie asked as he checked her temperature and heart rate.

"Like I was run over by an eighteen wheeler," Lana rasped, licking her cracked lips in vain to moisten them.

She coughed violently into a fist, her throat feeling as if it was on fire.

"Raph!" Donnie shouted, knowing he was the only one around.

Leo and Mikey went on patrol as usual, but Raph strangely decided to stay behind. He was usually the first one out when the brothers went topside, but he vehemently denied Leo's request to leave to lair. Donnie was starting to think Raph had feelings for Lana, but he dismissed it, doubting that his violent brother could even process such complex feelings. He couldn't even imagine what Raph would be like if he started acting like Donnie did when April was around.

"What?" Raph asked irritably. He had been at a particularly action-packed part of his new comic book when Donnie so rudely interrupted him.

"I need a glass of water."

"I'm not your butler-" Raph started, but froze when he saw Lana sitting on the medical table in from of Donnie as the intelligent turtle continued his ministrations.

"Lana!" Raph said excitedly as he rushed to her side.

"Stop that," Lana said weakly as she pushed away the flashlight Donnie had been shining in her eyes to make sure her pupils were dilating properly. She looked up at Raph with tired eyes that still held faint shadows underneath them. "Water?"

"Oh, r-right!" Raph stuttered as he ran from the garage and into the kitchen.

He was so relieved when he saw Lana sitting on that table, awake. Donnie had been worried about her chances, which made Raph a wreck on the inside. She had lost too much blood, and they didn't have the equipment or resources to perform a blood transfusion. Donnie said all they could do was wait and hope that she would make it.

Raph rushed back into his brother's lab with a tall glass of water, which Lana downed in seconds.

"Much better," Lana said with a small smile.

Raph and Donnie watched as she closed her eyes, eyebrows creased and a frown on her face. The two brothers exchanged perplexed expressions. Donnie reached a hand towards her, but jerked back when her eyes flew open, pupils slitted and fangs bared in a satisfied smirk.

She dropped lightly to her feet and stood with strong legs as she felt power course through her body. The hole from the IV needle closed up in seconds and the color immediately returned to her face as her body quickly replenished her blood supply. She felt the sliced muscle of her forearm begin to stitch itself back together so she pulled off the pointless bandage and tossed it back on the medical table. Donnie and Raph watched in awe and slight disgusted as they watched her muscle tissue reconnect and her skin slowly knit itself together before their eyes.

"Amazing," Donnie said softly in awe. "But slightly nauseating."

"Yeah, it made me sick the first few times I watched it too," Lana said.

Suddenly she gasped in pain as a hand flew to her head and her other arm leaned back on the table as her knees once again buckled beneath her. Raph panicked and quickly grabbed her arm to put it over his shoulder to support her.

"What's wrong?" Raph and Donnie asked – Raph more in concern and Donnie in a more serious and professional way.

As Lana held her head, her eyes were open and Donnie could see her eyes change back and forth until settling with human pupils.

"Strange," Donnie said quietly to himself. He decided to ask Lana about this later.

"Nothing," Lana replied breathily. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Raph asked, worry evident in his voice.

"Actually, no, I'm starving," Lana said, smiling up at Raph.

"Let's go fix that then," Raph said with a small smile in return and the two exited the lab as Donnie started after them.

Raph was definitely acting weird, and Donnie meant weirder than usual. Maybe, towards Lana…? Donnie shook his head. He was more interested in what happened with Lana's eyes a second ago than his brother's odd behavior.

Raph called Leo on his T-phone to tell him to pick up a fresh pizza with sardines on the way back to the lair. Leo was rather confused until Raph explained that Lana had finally woken up and apparently she wanted some fishy pizza.

Master Splinter left the dojo to find Lana and his sons exiting the kitchen, talking animatedly. The rat's eldest son recounted the previous night's events and had some questions for their new guest. He understood that the girl had already revealed much of her past to him, but he realized that she had left some rather important information out.

"Lana," Master Splinter said, somewhat sternly, which gained the group's total attention. Lana knew this was coming, and nodded seriously as she headed for the dojo. The turtles went to follow after her. "No, my sons, I think it would be best if we spoke _alone_." The rat emphasized the last word, making sure they wouldn't try to eavesdrop.

"No, Master Splinter," Lana said, surprising the rat, though he didn't show it. "I think they should hear this too."

"Very well, child," Master Splinter said, smiling down at the girl as he put a hand on her shoulder.

The elder was proud that Lana was finally starting to trust his sons enough to open up to them. Perhaps she will one day consider them more than allies at some point in the near future. Lana was used to being alone, but she needed friends that understood her and Splinter was positive that his sons would be perfect for that role.

Master Splinter knelt on the floor and his sons mimicked him as they lowered themselves across from their sensei. Lana went to follow the turtles, but Master Splinter motioned for her to take the place beside him. She gripped her knees nervously as she glanced from the turtles to the rat before looking down at the floor in front of her.

"I'm not what you think I am," Lana started. She didn't know how to say it, couldn't find the right words as the turtles' gazes seemed to see right through her.

"What are you talking about?" Leo asked.

"You're a mutant, like us," Raph added.

A short silence stretched in the dojo.

"Does this have to do with your eyes?" Donnie asked, referring to her episode back in his lab.

"Sort of," Lana said, biting her lip. "You see, I'm not a full mutant. I'm only half mutant."

"Am I the only one that doesn't get a thing she's saying?" Mikey asked.

"Yeah, how can you only become a half mutant?" Leo asked. "You're either a mutant or you're not."

Lana looked anxiously at Splinter, who nodded in encouragement.

"I didn't really become a mutant," Lana said indirectly.

She wasn't sure she could say it out right even as Leo, Raph, and Mikey continued to look confused. Donnie cupped his chin, indicating he was thinking rather deeply.

"Lana," Donnie started, eyes wide in the realization and in slight disbelief. "Were you born a mutant?"

The brothers looked at Donnie like he was insane, before understanding slowly dawned on their faces, Mikey slower than the others. Lana nodded, finally looking them in the eyes as they stared back.

"How does that even happen?" Leo asked, shocked.

"Well, my mother was a normal human, and my father was a mutant."

"And your mom was okay being involved with a mutant?" Donnie asked.

"Yeah, I mean, he saved her from some guys one night. She invited him in for tea as thanks, and I guess one thing led to another." The turtles stared at her, all of their eyes wide, not making the slightest sound or movement. "Look, it wasn't exactly planned, but when they found out my mother was pregnant, they were happy. At least, that's what I was told."

"Couldn't human doctors detect something like that when they perform an ultrasound?"

"I don't know," Lana replied with an uncomfortable shrug. "I guess not, but even after I was born my parents thought I was a human too. I didn't start changing until I was around five years old. I had a temper tantrum and suddenly I looked like… well, you know."

"How did no one else find out?" Donnie asked curiously.

"I'm not sure. It's not like I changed into my mutant half during school or anything, and I didn't really have any friend because my eyes scared them."

"You were all alone?" Mikey asked quietly, feeling pity towards her.

"Not really. I had my parents and everything. Well, I had a friend once, but…" Lana looked down, holding back some tears. "My mother sent me away to live with her parents in upstate New York. They had a cabin in the woods that was rather isolated from other people, so I was free to explore my mutation. They accepted me and loved me for who I was, my human _and_ my mutant side. But, they were old. My grandfather got sick and died, my grandmother died not long after. I'm surprised she lasted as long as she did. She was so sad…"

Uninvited tears rolled down her face and dropped onto her arms as she tightly gripped her knees. Just thinking about her late grandparents made her so upset. She missed them so much that sometimes it was painful just to keep living.

"What about your parents?" Leo asked. "Didn't they want you to come back home after that?"

"I don't even think they knew. The last time my grandparents talked to them was when my mother called to say she was pregnant."

"Woah, woah, woah," Mikey said. "There's another half mutant?"

"No, she was pregnant with her husband, my stepfather, who was human. But, after that letter, we didn't hear from them again. I don't even think they knew my grandparents died."

"Hasn't your friend ever tried to contact you after you left?" Leo asked gently.

"Hikaru was the reason my mother sent me away. She warned me never to tell anyone about my true self, but he was my best friend. Sure, he was my only friend, but we were very close. I thought he would understand, but when I told him he called me a monster and a freak. We never talked to each other again."

"That was stupid," a voice that had previously been silent said. Lana's head jerked up to stare at Raph in surprise. "Humans will never accept mutants! We aren't like them!"

"W-What?" Lana asked as tears continued to fall down her red cheeks.

"Why would you do something so stupid and tell a human that you were a mutant? Are you an idiot?" Raph continued angrily as he stood, gesturing wildly.

He couldn't understand why a mutant would out themselves to humans. They would never accept them. Even the humans the brothers had helped ran away screaming when they saw the mutant turtles.

"Excuse me?" Lana asked, standing as well. "I was a kid! How would I know he would react like that? I thought he was my friend! He didn't care that my eyes were like this. He accepted me for that, so I thought he would understand when I told him I was a half mutant!"

"Raph, calm down," Donnie said, standing in front of him with his hands up defensively.

"Why are you so mad, bro?" Mikey asked from his spot on the floor.

Raph paused. Actually, he didn't know why he was so mad. His stomach dropped when he realized what he said to Lana. He didn't even realize what he was saying until it was too late.

"You know what?" Lana growled. The brothers looked at her in surprise, seeing her pupils were slitted, fangs bared, claws extended. "Forget this! I thought I – I thought-" Lana growled loudly and stormed out of the dojo and out of the lair.

The four brothers stared after her with wide eyes, not fully comprehending what just happened.

"Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello," Master Splinter called sternly. "Go after her and make sure she is okay. The sewers are still unfamiliar to her."

"Hai, sensei," the turtles said and left the dojo.

Raph turned to go after Lana as well, but Splinter stopped him.

"Raphael, you will stay."

The ninja in question turned around, regret clearly showing on his face as well as his urge to go after the girl. He walked up to his sensei, scratching his head as a flurry of emotions passed through him.

"S-Sensei, I-I didn't mean-" Raph stuttered, clearly distressed.

"I know, my son," Splinter interrupted wisely, cutting his son off. "I understand that you may think it was unwise to reveal her mutant nature to a human. However, you must see it from her point of view. She was alone, and this boy was her only friend. Surely, Lana felt as if she was lying to her closest friend by not telling him about her secret. She was young and naïve, just like you in the past."

"Hai, sensei," Raph said sadly. "I just – I don't know."

"My son, what do think of Lana?"

"What do you mean?" Raph asked, confused.

"You have feelings for the girl," Master Splinter said bluntly with a sigh.

"What are you talking about?" Raph asked incredulously.

"You weren't upset at Lana for revealing her true self to a human. You were upset that she was hurt when she did so."

"I-I wasn't-" Raph stuttered before going silent.

He thought about what his master told him and it started to make sense. He didn't know why he got so upset before because he didn't realize that he actually had feelings for her. It was so strange, thinking that he had feelings like these at all, let alone toward a strange half mutant girl they only met a few days ago. He couldn't believe he didn't figure it out sooner.

He looked down at the throwing knife in his belt. It was the one that Mikey found on the ground the day Lana was taken by the Kraang. He remembered how he felt then, after he watched the Kraang knock her out right in front of him – anger, worry, fear. He had wanted to rush to the Kraang and crush them to bits.

"Go, Raphael," Master Splinter said when a look of realization appeared on his son's face.

Raph nodded, determined. He sprinted from the dojo and left the lair in search of Lana.

Lana stalked down an empty street. She knew it was a mistake to tell Hikaru, but at the time… it was different. Raph was right, but just the way he said it made her so angry. Before she even realized it she had mutated and ran from the lair. She needed some air – cool her head.

Her hood was pulled tightly over her head, but her heightened senses heard the figure land a few feet in front of her. She continued walking, trying to go around, but a hesitant hand on her shoulder made her pause.

"Leave me alone," Lana said darkly as she looked up to see Raph looking back cautiously.

"Lana-" Raph started, but Lana stopped him with her hand on his plastron.

"Don't, Raph," she interrupted, looking away from him. "You were right. I was an idiot, but I was an even bigger idiot to think I could ever trust you guys." Lana pushed past a stunned Raph.

"No!" Raph shouted, making Lana turn to face him in surprise. "I shouldn't have yelled at you like that. I didn't see it from your point of view. You didn't want to lie to a friend, even though your mom told you to. It wasn't your fault."

"Raph," Lana whispered softly.

"You have no idea how sorry I am about what I said back there. If I could take it back, I would in a heartbeat. I want you to trust us, but I'm pretty sure I screwed that up big time."

The two were silent as they stared at each other.

"That kid made the biggest mistake," Raph said as he stepped closer to Lana. "He would never know how strong you would become." Raph reached out and grabbed Lana's hand, bringing it up so he could inspect her claws. "He would never know what a smart mouth you would get." Raph ran one of his three fingers over her lips, revealing her fangs. "He would never see how beautiful you are."

Raph pushed he hood back to reveal her tear streaked face, yellow eyes glistening, as he still held her hand. He cupped her cheek as a tear fell down her cheek and onto his hand.

Lana was at a loss for words, barely able to comprehend the situation, as Raph leaned in and kissed her full on the lips. She stood frozen with wide eyes before relaxing into his embrace when he pulled her close.

Her eyes slowly closed and she kissed back, unsure of what to do. This was her first kiss, and the first time she ever felt this way. Sure, she had a crush on Hikaru when they were younger, but this felt different.

She was just as inexperienced in this department as Raph was, and she wasn't sure if she felt the same way. Hell, she didn't even know what to say or how to act around him anymore. But here, in this moment, it felt like bliss.

They slowly parted, staring into each other's eyes for a moment before Raph finally realized what he just did. His face turned bright red as he stepped back and put a nervous hand over his face to try to cover it up.

He couldn't believe he actually kissed her! He just realized half an hour before that he had feelings for her, and no he goes and kisses her. He didn't even know if she liked him back or if she even wanted to kiss him. He glanced at her anxiously to see she wasn't faring any better.

Her face was red all the way to her ears as she held a hand over her mouth in shock. She stared at him with wide eyes, eyes he noticed had returned to normal human eyes. They started at each other silently as Raph felt the tension rise sky high, that is, until he heard a girlish giggle.

He stared at her with his mouth hanging open as her giggle turned into roaring laughter that made her hug her sides. Raph was frozen for a moment before he cracked a grin at the sight of her smile, and chuckled along with her. Soon, they were both laughing hysterically.

After a few minutes, the laughter died down and Lana looked at him with a sheepish smile, glancing away.

"I-I don't really know anything about this kind of stuff," Lana said nervously, her face red with embarrassment.

"I don't either," Raph said with a confident smile. "But, I'm sure we'll figure it out." Raph reach his hand out to her.

"Together," Lana added as she took his hand.

**Hey! Sorry, this chapter was kind of short again, but there wasn't a better place to stop it. New chapter is definitely on to the next episode on the series, so it will have more action. I hope I didn't rush things between Lana and Raph, or if it seemed stupid. PM to let me know or review if you want to read more. If I don't get reviews, I don't publish another chapter because I take that as no one wants it to keep going. I promise, it will get better from here, so **_**review if you want me to continue with the story!**_


	7. New Friend Old Enemy: Part 1

**Hello again! Sorry the update took so long. School started up and I only had 1 review to keep me motivated, and though I appreciate each and every review, I need more than just 1 to get chapters out quickly in this time period. So, there's some shout-outs to some people at the end. Read and review please!**

Tonight was Lana's first night on patrol with the turtles, and she had to admit it was quite exhilarating to sprint across rooftops and jump around. Thanks to her mutated form, she was easily keeping up with the brothers and wasn't even breaking a sweat. She laughed loudly as the adrenaline pumped through her system.

The turtles flipped through the air to a lower building that was farther away than the other, and Lana followed suite. She landed unsteadily on her feet at first, but her enhanced sense of balanced immediately corrected itself. She wasn't used to doing this kind of parkour activity, but her mutation certainly made easier.

As the group headed toward a gap that was even farther than the one before, Donnie sped up.

"Check it out!" he shouted as he jumped forward.

He completed a single flip, touched the ledge of the other building, rolled, and slid smoothly to a stop with one knee on the ground. Mikey didn't break his stride as he ran up the short distance to the base of an old water tower before jumping off the edge and high into the air. He kept his arms out and legs straight as he slowly flipped and rolled on his side of the edge of the building and on the roof. The youngest brother stood with a flourish of his hand and laughed in a haughty manner, upstaging his purple-masked brother's jump.

Leo, Raph, and Lana slid to a stop on the edge of the first building, looking down at the drop. Lana looked down and felt a slight sense of vertigo, but pushed it aside. Her mutated form could easily cover the distance and always gave her confidence when faced with seemingly impossible tasks such as this. Well, impossible tasks for her human half.

"Top that, turtle chumps!" Mikey called challengingly.

"All right, guys," Leo said with confidence as he took a few steps back. "Check this out."

Leo's eyes narrowed as his expression turned serious in concentration as he ran towards the edge. He performed two front hand springs, the second had his hands landing on the edge for him to push himself off over the gap. He extended his body fully as he launched himself into the air, then tucked his body close for a flip before landing lithely on the edge of the other building. He pushed off again and flipped once more before finally landing.

"Woah," Mikey said in vocal approval.

"Nice, kiddies," Raph said from his crouch beside Lana.

He tilted his head back and forth to crack it before lunging forward. However, he didn't perform any tricks. He just launched himself over the gap to crash into his three screaming, shocked brothers and knocked them down like a bowling bowl toppling the pins.

Mikey groaned as Raph laughed evilly in accomplishment.

"What as that?" Donnie asked as he rose to his feet along with his other brothers. "You didn't do anything flips."

"Oops," Raph said with a smile, not apologetic at all.

The turtles looked towards Lana, the only one still on the other roof.

Lana didn't say anything as she sprinted forward and grabbed the ledge halfway through a front hand spring and swung herself over the ledge and into the brick wall of the building before putting all her power in her legs and rocketing herself towards the other roof. She smiled confidently as she approached the other roof, but suddenly, the light around her dimmed and she knew her mutation receded.

She panicked slightly when she suddenly felt off balance and brought her mutate up last minute to land hard in a roll. She stopped in front of the turtles, who whooped and hollered at the impressive show, and didn't notice her concern as she stared at the ground deep in thought.

She knew her mutation was getting harder to control, but the instability was getting more and more dangerous for herself. If she hadn't brought her mutation up in time, she wouldn't have made it to the building. She didn't like to admit it, but maybe she should tell Master Splinter. He might be able to give her some advice to gain control.

A noise came from the other side of the roof and the five of them rushed over to lean their backs against a wall. Lana was the closest to the edge, and leaned forward to sniff the air. Before she could say anything, the four turtles lunged around her with their weapons drawn. Lana chuckled as she leisurely walked around the corner to find a small black and white kitten. It meowed at the four turtles as they holstered their weapons.

"Don't give up, Leo," Raph said with a smirk as he lay a hand on his brother's shoulder. "You might actually win this fight."

Lana rolled her eyes as Raph as she stepped forward, but was pushed aside by an excited Mikey as he rushed to the kitten.

"Aww," Mikey cooed as he shoved Donnie and Leo aside. "It's a little kitty."

The kitten meowed and raised a paw as Mikey scooped it up in his hands. The kitten rolled on its back and purred happily as Mikey scratched its belly. Lana walked up behind the turtle to scratch the kitten on the side of its face and its purring double-timed.

"And its name is," Mikey started as he peered at the collar.

"Mittens!" a male voice called from the right.

"Good guess," Mikey replied. "Wait, who said that?"

"He did," Lana replied, pointing towards a man leaning out a fire escape window of the next building.

"Mittens?" the man called again.

"I think that's the owner," Donnie said. Mikey walked to the edge of the roof, towards the owner. "What are you doing?" Donnie asked incredulously.

"Hey!" Leo called.

"Woah," Raph said quickly. "Wait, Mikey!"

Lana grabbed Mikey's arm as he turned to his brothers.

"What?" Mikey asked, annoyed. "I'm returning Mittens to her owner."

"First of all," Lana said, trying to take the kitten from Mikey. "Mittens is a boy. Second, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Are you an idiot?" Raph asked, before he rolled his eyes at his own statement. "Wait, let me rephrase that. You're an idiot!"

"Raph," Lana scolded warningly. She didn't like how Raph was always so mean to Mikey.

"You can't reveal yourself to a human," Donnie said as he stepped forward.

"Why not?" Mikey asked innocently.

"Because they'll freak the heck out, that's why not!"

"No, they won't," Mikey said. "I'm not so scary."

"You're an ugly, green mutant armed with ninja weapons," Raph said harshly.

"Look, this guy's gonna see that I'm just a regular cat-loving dude like him." Mittens purred as Mikey rubbed its belly again. "Next thing you know, we'll be best buds! This is gonna be awesome!"

"No!" Leo shouted.

"Don't!" Raph warned.

"Wait!" Donnie said.

Mikey jumped down to the man before Lana could stop him. She face-palmed and shook her head. Hikaru freaked out from her own mutation, and she didn't look half as strange as the turtles. Later, she would have to explain that to him.

"Mittens!" the man called once more as Mikey landed on the railing of the fire escape in front of him.

"Hi," Mikey said with a smile and a friendly wave as he jumped down from the railing. "Here's your-"

The man screamed, interrupting the turtle and making him flinch.

"Ugly, green, mutant freak!" the man shouted fearfully as he jabbed his finger towards the young turtle.

"But, I got your cat!" Mikey exclaimed as he brought the kitten closer to him.

"Help! He's got my cat!"

"Dude, chill!"

Mittens, startled by his owner's fear, hissed and lunged at Mikey. Mittens landed on his head and latched on as Mikey screamed and stumbled around the fire escape until he fell over the railing and down into the alley.

"Mikey!" Lana said, concerned, as she stepped off the building and landing a bit hard on the ground beside him.

She knelt down and put a hand on his shoulder as he sat up and rubbed his head. The three other brothers landed in front of them as the two stood. Mikey turned away from her and looked dejectedly at his brothers.

"Does anyone want to help me with this?" Mikey asked, sounding like a kicked puppy.

Mikey leaned forward so the brothers could see the yowling Mittens latched on his shell, occasionally scratching with his forepaws.

"No," the brothers replied simultaneously; Leo with a blank look, Donnie looking at his younger brother as if he was the dumbest turtle on the planet, and Raph looking irritated.

"I got him," Lana said gently as she reached for the kitten.

Lana slowly grabbed Mittens around the middle and whispered calming phrases to it until he calmed down enough to retract his claws from Mikey's shell. Lana cradled the now purring kitten in her arms.

"I'll be right back," Lana said as she jumped up the fire escape, using one hand to help her as the other held the kitten protectively to her chest.

She reverted herself back to her human form before kneeling down and knocking on the man's window. The man jumped and swung his head towards the window, almost dropping the phone he held to his ear. Lana held the kitten up to the window so the man could see his pet. The man hung up the phone, looking confused, but still scared, as he approached the window cautiously and slowly opened the window.

"Sorry about that," Lana said, not needing to pretend much to look sheepish. "That was my brother."

"W-What?" the man asked, barely keeping a hold on his kitten when Lana slowly handed Mittens to him.

"I know, it looked pretty good, right? I'm aspiring to be a famous make-up artist for sci-fi movies."

Lana smiled, and managed to look a little guilty, as if she regretted doing such a good job that it terrified the poor man.

"O-O-Oh," the man replied, slowly calming down.

Lana had a pretty lame explanation, but humans would hang on tightly to anything rationalize something away. For example, the giant mutant turtle wasn't real, just an amazing make-up job given by a fifteen-year-old girl that aspired to create monsters for movies.

"Well, you have some talent there," he said with a slightly smile. "Good luck with that."

"Thanks," Lana replied with a smile. "Have a good night."

"You too."

Lana turned away from the man as he closed his window and mutated herself as she jumped down into the alley again. Mikey was doing some weird movements, but jumped in surprise and screamed when Lana landed solidly beside him.

"What was that?" Lana asked with surprise as she held her hands up in surrender.

"Face it, Mikey," Raph said with a frustrated shake of his head as he stepped up to the youngest turtle. "Chris Bradford is the last person on earth that would want to be friends with you." Raph paused. "Well, next to last next to every other person on earth."

Raph looked smug with his arms crossed in front of his brother. Lana stepped in front of Mikey and glared furiously at Raph. She may have feelings for the red-masked turtle, but the way he was treating his brother was terrible. Raph froze for a second under Lana's steady glare before looking away to glare at the wall, knowing the girl was mad with him.

Suddenly, Lana's face became blank as her head tilted to the side when she heard a strange sound from behind her. Raph looked behind her with a glare before looking up to the roofs as Lana did the same.

People clan in black slid down the ropes behind Mikey and Lana as more jumped down from the rooftops to surround the group.

Lana hissed and stepped forward, but Raph barred her path and gently pushed her behind him. She looked at him in surprise, but didn't object when he pulled her hood up over her head.

"Stay back, Lana," Raph whispered quietly, not wanting the other ninja to hear him.

Raph didn't know who these people were, but after the two had kissed a couple nights ago, he found himself becoming protective of the girl.

"Ninjas, in New York?" Donnie asked quietly, though it wasn't directed at anyone. "Other than us?"

The turtles took out their weapons and readied themselves for a fight. Lana stepped to the middle of the group, trying to keep all of the enemies in view futilely.

She growled quietly, wanting to lunge at the nearest one, but her rational mind told her to stay back. She wasn't trained in ninjutsu like the brothers, and their enemies certainly looked like ninja. She wasn't prepared for capable of fighting these enemies if she was right. Despite her annoyance and frustration, she would have to leave the fight to the boys.

One of the ninja made a slight movement, and a shuriken whirled through the air towards Donnie, who raised his staff in time as the bladed weapon sunk into the wood. Donnie growled in anger at his damaged weapon and glared at the enemies in front of him.

Suddenly, the group of ninja in front of the purple-masked turtle sprinted forward, weapons drawn. Then, there was a flurry of movement around Lana.

Raph caught an enemy sword in his sai, disarmed him, and kicked him back. Another swung at him with a kind of naginata, but Raph ducked low and threw the ninja over his shell. A third ninja with a sword swung at Raph, but the turtle kicked him hard in the chest, forcing the ninja back and into a few more enemies that collapsed in a heap. A fourth swung, but Raph stepped back and out of the way before elbowing him on the back and towards the ground. While he wasn't paying attention, an enemy snuck to his side and kicked the side of his knee. The turtle growl in pain as a staff collided hard with his abdomen, stunning him as another enemy kicked him back into a piled of garbage.

"Raph!" Lana shouted in fear as a ninja prepared to swing his sword at Raph.

Lana lunged in front of him protectively, but there was no need as Mikey flew into the ninja and knocked him down hard with a kick. Lana turned towards the groaning Raph in concern. She grabbed his face carefully with both hands as his eyes opened slowly, but flew open at the sight behind Lana.

Before Lana could turn, Raph had pushed her aside and behind him. He raised his sai to catch a blade that an enemy tried to use to kill the hooded girl. She watched the fight with wide eyes as she realized that the turtles were far more skilled than she expected them to be in real combat. Sparring in training was one thing, but the field is different. The turtles were holding their own as Raph and Leo backed up shell to shell.

"What are you so happy about?" Raph asked roughly, deflecting attacks and landing a few hits of his own.

"It's just nice to finally be fighting people," Leo replied, still smiling as he pushed an enemy back with his katanas. "Instead of robots or aliens or weed monsters."

Leo and Raph forced back their opponents simultaneously with a grunt as a large figure landed hard on the ground in a kneeling position on front of the turtles. The imposing figure slowly stood, moonlight gleaming off its helmet and spiked shoulder pads.

Suddenly, the figure burst into motion at the two eldest brothers, punching Leo hard enough to throw the turtle back into the alley wall. Raph stared in surprise before crossed his said in front of him protectively as the figure hit him with a strong round-house kick. Raph flew down the alley and landed in front of Donnie, gaining a look from Mikey, who held a ninja off the ground and was poised to punch.

The new enemy lunged towards Donnie, who dodged upward, using his staff like an athlete would in pole vaulting. However, the man grabbed the staff, and Donnie lost his grip on his staff as the enemy swung it at the turtle. The staff hit Donnie so hard it threw his shell back into a wall and held face first into garbage.

Mikey released the blade to his nun chuck and swung it over his head confidently with the same smile he usually wore. Mikey launched it at the man, but he grabbed the nun chuck easily and pulled the unprepared turtle forward roughly. Mikey shouted in surprise as the man's fist landed hard in the turtle's gut. Mikey looked up at the attacker, who narrowed his eyes at the turtle.

"What are you?" a deep voice echoed from inside the helmet.

Mikey didn't answer as he kicked off the man's thigh, right above spiked knee pads, and flipped back and out of his grip. The two of them began a tug-of-war match with the chain of the nun chuck. The chain creaked under the strain.

Lana swung out one of her throwing knives and rushed forward. She yowled as she swung down hard on the taut chain and barely was able to break one of the links. The two stumbled back as the chain broke apart, but the man quickly steadied himself.

He narrowed his eyes at the small figure, crouched low enough to be covered in the darkness of shadow. The figure hissed at him, showing her claws and the light from the moon reflected off of her elongated canines. Behind the figure, the four turtles got into fighting stances as the police sirens echoed in the distance.

The imposing hulk of an enemy looked back out of the alley as the sirens grew louder and lights flashed. The man gave the group one last glare before he and his men retreated to the rooftops.

The turtles relaxed slightly, but disappeared to the rooftops just as a cop car rounded the corner to the alley. When they reached the roof, none of the enemies could be seen. The group put away their weapons, warily eyeing their surroundings, before heading back to the lair.

Leo was in the kitchen talking to Master Splinter while Lana, April, and the other three turtles were in the living room area. Donnie was working on his homemade laptop. April was sitting on the couch reading a magazine targeting young teenage girls her age. Raph, grunting with exertion, was doing pushups using his sai in a unique way in which he held a part of the blade and the butt of the handle touched the ground.

Lana was practicing throwing her knives at the dummie Raph usually used as a punching bag. She experimented with different ways of drawing her knives and throwing them from different positions, and with her mutated form, her knives hit every mark she wanted.

However, she would attempt to do the same thing with her human half, and the knives sometimes went off mark. Normally, she wouldn't care if her human half wasn't performing well, but with the trouble she's been having controlling her mutation, she wanted to make sure she could still defend herself if she needed to. There may come a time when she was in her human form and couldn't mutate, and she wanted to be prepared for it. She planned to talk to Master Splinter after Leo finished with him.

Mikey was reading an issue of Martial Pain that had a man named Chris Bradford posed on the cover. Apparently, Lana learned, Chris Bradford was some kind of icon in the martial arts world, though it was only Mikey that seemed to be obsessed with him.

"Ohh," Mikey said with increasing excitement, causing his voice to get higher pitched as he continued talking. "I wish me and Chris Bradford were friends!"

Lana stopped her practice as she watched Mikey bite three times across the top of the magazine. She raised an eyebrow at the turtle as she sheathed her last knife and walked over to the group. Mikey leaned back in his beanbag chair and kicked his legs energetically as he laughed childishly.

"Mikey," April said as she put her magazine down and Mikey leaned forward in the beanbag chair again to stare intently at his own magazine. "You already have a human friend." Mikey looked up to April with an expectant expression. "Me."

"April, you don't count," Mikey said dismissively as he turned his attention back to his magazine. "We saved your life. You have to like us."

"What about me?" Lana asked.

"You're half mutant, Lana. So, you don't count either."

Lana frowned slightly at his remark and narrowed her eyes at him.

Raph turned to face Mikey, not stopping his pushups.

"Too bad there's not a place for freaks to meet people where no one can see how hideous they are," Raph said with a smirk as Mikey frowned deeper and deeper with each thing the red-masked turtle said.

"Wait, there is!" April said. "The internet!" April turned to the purple-masked turtle. "Donnie, can I see your laptop?"

"Eh, uh, sure!" Donnie said nervously as he pressed a button on the keyboard. "S-Sure. Just a s-sec." The turtle smiled nervously as he walked over to sit next to April.

"Check it out," April said, taking the laptop and typing rapidly as Mikey looked over her shoulder curiously. "It's a site where you can make friends with anybody online."

"Sweet!" Mikey said as he forcefully shoved April out from under the laptop and took her spot, not seeming to notice how rude he was being. Mikey started typing on the laptop before holding the corner of the screen nervously. "Huh? Oohh," Mikey groaned with happiness. "Chris Bradford's on here! He'll be my first friend!" Mikey began typing again before theatrically pushing a final button. The youngest turtle then proceeded to stare at the screen intensely from mere an inch and a half away.

"Careful, Mikey," Lana said from behind him, gently moving his head back from the screen. "If you do that you could hurt your eyes."

"Yeah," April said. "Anyways, Mikey, people don't always respond imme-"

A noise from the computer interrupted her.

"But, sometimes they do," April said, looking at the computer in slight surprise.

Mikey gasped as he slowly sat up straight with wide eyes, not looking away from the screen.

"No way!" Mikey said excitedly as he held the corners of the screen again. "Chris Bradford just accepted my friendship! I have a friend! Thanks, April!"

Mikey hugged the red-head close before releasing her and tossing Donnie's laptop high in the air as he climbed over the top of the couch and rushed past Lana.

"Where're you going?" Donnie asked before lunging forward to catch his laptop with an indignant, "Hey!"

"To hang out with my friend, Chris Bradford," Mikey said smugly as he pointed to himself.

"This guy's famous," April said. "He probably has thousands of friends." April used air quotes around 'friends'.

"Yeah," Lana agreed. "Half the time people accept friend requests without even knowing the person. I don't think he's taking this the same way you are, Mikey."

"And guess who's number five-thousand two-hundred and eighty-six?" Mikey asked, counting off his three fingers and ignoring the concerned Lana as she walked after him.

"You," April guessed.

"Daniel Ramirez!" Mikey exclaimed with his hands on his hips, or the equivalent of hips. "And I'm right next to him," Mikey continued with a wink. "Later!"

Mikey vaulted himself easily over the turnstiles and left the lair.

"Well, this ought to be interesting," April said lightly.

Raph had paused his exercises, arms extended mid pushup, to stare after his idiotic younger brother with a look of confused incredulity.

"Should we go after him?" Donnie asked, looking at April.

"Eh," Raph said carelessly. "He's gotta learn somehow."

"Raph, you're such a jerk sometimes," Lana said as she rolled her eyes and followed after Mikey.

"What'd I do?" Raph asked, dumbfounded, looking to Donnie and April, who shrugged their shoulder noncommittally.

Raph went back to his pushups, pondering what he could have done wrong. He thought things were good between Lana and him, great actually. He kissed her and she kissed back. What could she be upset with him about?

Lana chased after Mikey over the rooftops and, with a final burst of speed, caught up to him. She grabbed his arm and stopped him, spinning him to face her.

"Mikey," Lana said worriedly. "I think you're making a mistake. Just because they accept a stupid friend request online doesn't mean they want to be friends in real life. I know you think differently, but I'm worried about you."

"Lana," Mikey said confidently. "I'm friends with Chris Bradford now. You don't need to worry about me!"

"Fine, can I at least come with you then?" Lana said, mentally shaking her head at his naivety, but forced a smile. "From what I heard, he's a pretty cool guy."

"Of course you can come! This is gonna be awesome!"

Mikey grabbed her hand and dragged her the rest of the way. She saw a large muscled man closing up a building and recognized him from the picture on the billboard that he was indeed Chris Bradford. Mikey and Lana leapt down to the ground behind the man.

"What up? Hey," Mikey said with an excited giggle. "I'm M-"

Chris Bradford suddenly spun and threw a shuriken at the two of them, but he could only see Mikey since he stood in front and was taller than Lana.

"Woah!" Mikey said in surprise as he dodge to the left and right. "I'm being attacked by Chris Bradford!" The man threw another shuriken at Mikey, and it was headed straight for the turtle's face. "This is so cool."

"Mikey!" Lana shouted and tackled him to the ground and out of the line of fire.

Lana stood in front of Mikey protectively and flipped out one of her throwing knives and deflected the remaining shuriken until Chris Bradford stopped in surprise, not knowing who this girl was.

"Wait!" Mikey exclaimed, taking advantage of the pause in the fight. "We're friends!"

"What?" the man said.

"We're online friends! You accepted me!" Mikey explained, stepping forward with his hands on his chest and a smile on his face. "Remember?"

"Oh," Chris said slowly, before smiling in a way Lana didn't like. "Of course." Chris put his shuriken away and Lana put her throwing knife away, but stayed on the alert. "Nice to meet you," Chris said as he offered his hand.

Lana thought the voice sounded slightly familiar, and she smelled something strange too. She reverted to human form, her instincts telling her to do so.

Lana stepped to the side, crossing her arms over her chest. Mikey stepped forward with awe on his face as he excited shook Chris' hand with both of his. Mikey laughed in a way that made him sound like a stalker, making Lana face-palm. Chris was looking increasingly uncomfortable until he was able to pull his hand back.

Lana narrowed her eyes at the look of disgust on his face, but he quickly gave Mikey an awkward smile.

"Won't you come in?" Chris asked, nudging his shoulder towards his dojo.

Mikey eagerly went to follow him, but Lana put a hesitant hand on his arm to stop him. Something about this guy didn't sit right with her.

"Lana?" Mikey asked, looking back at her in confusion. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Chris said, turning back to the duo. "I almost forgot about you. I'm Chris Bradford, and you are?"

Chris offered his hand to her again, but she simply pulled her hood back and looked blankly up at the tall man. Chris started to grow anxious under the girl's gaze, though he would never admit it. Something about her made him nervous.

"Oh! This is Lana!" Mikey said excitedly. "She's-"

"Human," Lana said, covering Mikey's mouth before he could say anything else about her. "I'm his human friend, Lana."

Mikey looked at her in confusion before the excitement of going into Chris Bradford's dojo took his focus. She sighed in relief. There were some benefits to his short attention span.

"They must have been watching us from here," Leo said, standing on the ledge overlooking the alley the group were ambushed in two nights before. "The perfect place to stage an ambush."

Lana and Donnie stood beside Leo. Donnie nodded his head in agreement while Lana walked slowly around the edge of the building, sniffing around. She definitely caught the scent of the material the enemy ninja were wearing, and another more prevalent smell, probably from their leader.

"They were definitely here," Lana said, looking towards the purple and blue-masked turtles.

"It wasn't very fair, was it?" Donnie asked, pushing off from the ledge.

"It's not about fairness," Leo explained. "It's about victory." Leo clenched his hand into a fist as he looked back down the alley.

"Okay, I'm sorry," Donnie said, hands held up in surrender as he took a step back from his intense brother.

"Then," the three heard Mikey say from behind them. "And then Chris Bradford put on his hakama. Man, that guy can rock a hakama!"

"Yeah," Raph said, clearly exasperated with his brother. "Maybe he'll wear it again when he take you to the prom."

"And then after that he-"

Lana shook her head at the brothers. Mikey was certainly enamored with this Chris Bradford man, but personally Lana couldn't see it. The only reason Lana would go with Mikey when he went to meet the man was because she was worried for him. He may not have understood from her story about Hikaru, but she would be there if something happens.

It hadn't been a long time since she met the turtles, but she already felt close with them. She wasn't planning on it. Actually, she had planned to leave right after that raid on the Kraang base, but then so many things happened. She actually opened up to them about her deep, painful past experiences. Then, she realized that while the turtles and Master Splinter were starting to feel like family, Raph seemed to be slightly more. She had grown attached to the hot-headed turtle. It was small, but regardless, monumentally important to Lana.

"Ugh, enough!" Raph said, annoyed. "You've been going on about this for three hours."

Lana smiled slightly at his agitation, finding it amusing. It was so easy to push his buttons.

"Ohh," Mikey said, leaning close into Raph's face. "Someone sounds jealous. You just can't admit you were the 'R' word." Mikey stood back and made air quotations.

Raph looked up at him from his sitting position, eyebrow raised and looking just as confused as the rest of them felt.

"Wrong," Mikey said.

Lana face-palmed while Leo and Donnie just put a hand on their head, as if in pain from their own brother's stupidity, and groaned.

"I'm not wrong," Raph said, slightly indignantly.

"Oh yeah? Well, if you don't want to talk about my friend," Mikey said before he jumped high in a backwards flip, landing behind Leo and Donnie. He wrapped an arm around each of their shoulders. "I've got two other brothers who do."

"Actually," Leo said. "I'd rather talk about anything else."

Mikey released their shoulders.

"Like the concept of the silent 'W', perhaps?" Donnie suggested.

"Fine, heh," Mikey said, mildly upset. "I'll go talk to a guy who loves to talk about Chris Bradford more than anyone else."

"And that is?" Lana asked, though she had an idea where this was going.

"Chris Bradford," Mikey stage whispered to Donnie and Leo. "You coming, Lana?"

"Don't go with him," Raph said.

He didn't want to admit it, but he was slightly jealous that Lana went with Mikey alone last time, especially after she called him a jerk. Plus, he wouldn't know anything that happened if she wasn't with him. What if something bad happened? With Mikey, that was a very highly probability.

"She doesn't have to listen to you!" Mikey said with a glare, angry at Raph for trying to take away the one person who supported his friendship with Chris Bradford.

"Let's go," Lana said.

She didn't even look at Raph as she followed Mikey. What he said sounded more like an order, and she isn't one to be ordered around. After that night with Raph, it seemed like he was getting more overbearing.

When Lana and Mikey finally made it to the man's dojo, Lana started feeling guilty about how she acted towards Raph. The two made their way into the dojo from an open window on the roof and jumped down onto the padded mats as Chris went to town on a punching bag.

When Lana landed, she reverted to her human form, but tilted her head slightly. She recognized his form from somewhere, but she couldn't place where. There was a nagging at the back of her mind and it was really starting to bother her, but she would worry about that later. Right now, Lana just had to keep an eye on Mikey.

"There's my best buddy in the whole world," Mikey said excitedly, clasping his hand in front of him.

"Michelangelo," Chris greeted as he turned around. "Mikey, the Big M, how you doin' buddy?" Chris crossed his arms before noticing Lana standing off to the side, hood down and looking as pale as ever. "Oh, and Lana, was it?"

"Yeah," she replied, sticking close to Mikey as he walked up to the large man.

"I am stupendous, Chris," Mikey said with a flourish of his hand and a smile on his face. "Chrissy B." Mikey paused and tapped one of his fingers on his chip in thought. "I gotta work on your nickname. Oh! Rad Brad!"

"You know," Chris started, tapping his own bearded chin. "I was just thinking how we're such close friends, and yet I know so little about you."

"You think we're close friend?" Mikey asked excitedly.

"Of course! Now, tell me everything about _you_."

"Well, where should I start?"

"No, Mikey, wait!" Lana started, immediately concerned Mikey would say something that should be kept secret.

"Oh! I named all six of my toes," Mikey said, lifting one of his feet up.

"How interesting," Chris said in fake enthusiasm.

His tone wasn't fooling Lana, but definitely worked on Mikey, evidence being the turtle shoving the lifted foot into the man's face. Lana heard from the other turtles that Mikey's feet smelled something akin to some rotting dead thing. Lana could only cover her mouth as she giggled. Chris noticed, and narrowed his eyes at the girl when he noticed the hand was covering a broader smile than he originally thought.

"Ugh," Chris said at the smell, but Mikey didn't seem to notice, which made Lana laugh even more.

"There's Stubby, and Joey Nails," Mikey started, wiggling each toe as it was called.

"Oh, oh," Chris said, pushing the revolting foot down with his bare hand, something not even Miky's brothers would do. "That's fascinating, but I was thinking more about your impressive ninjutsu skills. You must have an incredible sensei."

"Oh, he is-" Mikey started, but Lana quickly put her hands over his mouth.

She didn't trust that he wouldn't let anything slip – like, say, that his sensei was a mutated rat-man that was also his father that lived in the sewers with his three other ninja turtle brothers.

"None of your concern," Lana interjected, staring down Chris with what she hoped wasn't the hostility she felt towards the prying man on the inside.

Chris paused, and narrowed his eyes slightly at the girl, but then he showed a grin that didn't sit right with Lana.

"Your skills were impressive as well, actually," Chris said with a smirk. "Where did you learn it from?"

"My father taught me when I was young," Lana explained curtly. "Nothing special, just self-defense."

Lana knew that Chris knew she was lying. She made it obvious enough because she wanted him to be distracted from questioning the naïve turtle beside her. Mikey, annoyed at being silenced, pushed her off him.

"And now, the Stinky Triplets," Mikey continued as if nothing happened and stood on his hands to give Chris a good view again. Lana couldn't help but giggle again.

"Ohoho," Chris said as he pushed the foot away from him and narrowed his eyes again at the giggling girl. "Okay, who's hungry?"

"Me!" Mikey shouted as he righted himself. "I want pizza! Do you like pizza?"

"Yeah, sure," Chris said dismissively as he rolled his eyes, not realizing he just made Mikey's day.

The turtle lunged forward and wrapped the large man in a bear hug.

"Woah," Mikey said with a slightly creepy smile. "We have so much in common."

Chris obviously looked uncomfortable, and was unsuccessfully trying to break the turtle's grip. Lana laughed this time and didn't cover it up, earning a look from Chris. Lana took pity on the man, and, chuckling, she detached the turtle from Chris, who rubbed his arm as if Mikey had hurt him, which was highly unlikely.

"Okay, Okay, let the poor man go," Lana said to a now pouting Mikey. "Mikey, you keep to the roofs while Chris and I go get the pizza, how's that?"

Mikey immediately brightened, a radient smile on his face as he nodded vigorously before disappearing into the rafters of the dojo. Lana smiled and shook her head at his childishness before turning to 'Rad Brad' and Mikey so kindly nicknamed him.

"So," Lana said. "Where's the nearest pizza place?"

"A few blocks away," Chris said warily, apparently expecting Lana to start behaving like Mikey did.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's head out."

Lana and Chris Bradford walked side by side as he led the way to the parlor in relative silence. Lana noticed Chris had glanced at her a couple times, but never said anything. They rounded the third corner when the man finally spoke up.

"So," Chris said, dragging out the word. "How long have you known Mikey?"

Lana figured she would answer his questions, as to not seem too suspicious, but would make sure to leave out anything important.

"Hmm," Lana said thoughtfully. How long had she known them, anyway? "Now that I think about it, maybe a week or so?"

"Really?" the man asked, genuinely surprised. "Weren't you scared of him?"

"Not really," Lana replied truthfully. "There's worse in the world that childish mutant turtles, right? Sure, he looks a little weird… okay, really weird, but I'm more scared of a murderer or a rapist than little old Mikey."

Chris nodded, finding her point valid at least.

The duo were silent as they arrived at the pizza parlor. It wasn't until they were about to leave, pizza in hand, when Lana put a restraining hand on Chris' arm. He looked back at her, puzzled.

"Mikey thinks really highly of you," Lana said seriously, her yellow eyes boring into his. "You're one of his first human friends, and his idol to boot. So, just promise me you won't hurt him."

Chris saw the pleading look in her eyes and almost wished he could reassure her truthfully, but he couldn't.

"I promise," he said, just as serious as the girl.

Lana searched his eyes, but couldn't find any malicious intent. She nodded at him before letting go. _Good_, she thought to herself. _Otherwise, I would have to kill him… slowly… and painfully._

**Sorry if this half wasn't very good. I didn't have time to sit down and do it all in one go and with classes starting up, it's been hard to get in a groove. I know the next half is going to be much better, so please review!**

**Lead Owl**

**softball 51**

**I appreciate you two for favoriting my story, but I would love to get a review from you guys so I know what you're thinking!**

**jakilundeen**

**I also appreciate you for favoriting myself and the story, but would love to read a review from you as well!**

**nachobeats823**

**Thanks so much for following the story, and I would love to hear a review from you too!**

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**You are awesome for following myself and the story, and I love that you reviewed once, but I would be even happier to hear more from you!**

**MonkeyGirl13**

**You are amazing for always reviewing each and every chapter of mine and I want to keep hearing from you!**

**SINCE IT IS SO HARD TO KEEP MOTIVATED DURING THE SCHOOL SEMESTERS, I NEED INSPIRATION FROM THOSE WHO WANT TO READ MORE! SO, ****IF YOU READ THE STORY, YOU REALLY REALLY REALLY NEED TO REVIEW!**


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